• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.733-740
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• 2012

Objective: The present study systematically analyzed the characteristics of ergonomic layout optimization methods by a comprehensive literature survey. Background: Although layout design methods for ergonomic placement of controls and displays on a console have been developed, understanding of their characteristics is lacking. Method: The present study analyzed layout optimization papers published past 20 years from the following four aspects: optimization model, optimization algorithm, design principle, and constraint/assumption. Results: The existing layout optimization methods based on various optimization techniques consider only a partial set of four layout principles(importance, frequency of use, sequence of use, and functional grouping) and two ergonomic criteria(visibility and reach). In addition, the existing methods oversimplify components in various sizes, shapes, and angles by assuming the equality of the components in size and shape. Conclusion: A more effective layout optimization method is needed which considers the layout principles and ergonomic criteria in a comprehensive manner and reflect the diversity of components in size and shape. Application: The identified characteristics on the existing layout optimization methods can be applicable to development of a better ergonomic console layout design method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2018

In this paper, finite element (FE) model updating based on multi-objective optimization with the surrogate model for a steel plate girder bridge is investigated. Conventionally, FE model updating for bridge structures uses single-objective optimization with finite element analysis (FEA). In the case of the conventional method, computational burden occurs considerably because a lot of iteration are performed during the updating process. This issue can be addressed by replacing FEA with the surrogate model. The other problem is that the updating result from single-objective optimization depends on the condition of the weighting factors. Previous studies have used the trial-and-error strategy, genetic algorithm, or user's preference to obtain the most preferred model; but it needs considerable computation cost. In this study, the FE model updating method consisting of the surrogate model and multi-objective optimization, which can construct the Pareto-optimal front through a single run without considering the weighting factors, is proposed to overcome the limitations of the single-objective optimization. To verify the proposed method, the results of the proposed method are compared with those of the single-objective optimization. The comparison shows that the updated model from the multi-objective optimization is superior to the result of single-objective optimization in calculation time as well as the relative errors between the updated model and measurement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.259-276
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• 2024

The undrained shear strength is widely acknowledged as a fundamental mechanical property of soil and is considered a critical engineering parameter. In recent years, researchers have employed various methodologies to evaluate the shear strength of soil under undrained conditions. These methods encompass both numerical analyses and empirical techniques, such as the cone penetration test (CPT), to gain insights into the properties and behavior of soil. However, several of these methods rely on correlation assumptions, which can lead to inconsistent accuracy and precision. The study involved the development of innovative methods using extreme gradient boosting (XGB) to predict the pile set-up component "A" based on two distinct data sets. The first data set includes average modified cone point bearing capacity (q_t), average wall friction (f_s), and effective vertical stress (σ_vo), while the second data set comprises plasticity index (PI), soil undrained shear cohesion (S_u), and the over consolidation ratio (OCR). These data sets were utilized to develop XGBoost-based methods for predicting the pile set-up component "A". To optimize the internal hyperparameters of the XGBoost model, four optimization algorithms were employed: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Social Spider Optimization (SSO), Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), and Sine Cosine Optimization Algorithm (SCOA). The results from the first data set indicate that the XGBoost model optimized using the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (XGB - AOA) achieved the highest accuracy, with R2 values of 0.9962 for the training part and 0.9807 for the testing part. The performance of the developed models was further evaluated using the RMSE, MAE, and VAF indices. The results revealed that the XGBoost model optimized using XGBoost - AOA outperformed other models in terms of accuracy, with RMSE, MAE, and VAF values of 0.0078, 0.0015, and 99.6189 for the training part and 0.0141, 0.0112, and 98.0394 for the testing part, respectively. These findings suggest that XGBoost - AOA is the most accurate model for predicting the pile set-up component.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4181-4194
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• 2022

Main steam safety valves are commonly used in nuclear power plants to provide final protections from overpressure events. Blowdown and dynamic stability are two critical characteristics of safety valves. However, due to the parameter sensitivity and multi-parameter features of safety valves, using traditional method to design and/or optimize them is generally difficult and/or inefficient. To overcome these problems, a surrogate model-based valve design optimization is carried out in this study, of particular interest are methods of valve surrogate modeling, valve parameters global sensitivity analysis and valve performance optimization. To construct the surrogate model, Design of Experiments (DoE) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the safety valve were performed successively, thereby an ensemble surrogate model (E-AHF) was built for valve blowdown and stability predictions. With the developed E-AHF model, global sensitivity analysis (GSA) on the valve parameters was performed, thereby five primary parameters that affect valve performance were identified. Finally, the k-sigma method is used to conduct the robust optimization on the valve. After optimization, the valve remains stable, the minimum blowdown of the safety valve is reduced greatly from 13.30% to 2.70%, and the corresponding variance is reduced from 1.04 to 0.65 as well, confirming the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimization method proposed in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 2018

High performance concrete (HPC) depends on various parameters such as the type of cement, aggregate and water reducer amount. Generally, the ready concrete company in various regions according to the requirements and costs, mix design of concrete as well as type of cement, aggregates, and, amount of other components will vary as a result of moment decisions or dynamic optimization, though the ideal conditions will be more applicable for the design of mix proportion of concrete. This study aimed to apply dynamic optimization for mix design of HPC; consequently, the objective function, decision variables, input and output variables and constraints are defined and also the proposed dynamic optimization model is validated by experimental results. Results indicate that dynamic optimization objective function can be defined in such a way that the compressive strength or performance of all constraints is simultaneously examined, so changing any of the variables at each step of the process input and output data changes the dynamic of the process which makes concrete mix design formidable.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2014

Engineering applications of global optimization techniques are recently abundant in the literature and it may be caused by both new methodologies arising and faster computers coming out. Many of the optimization techniques are based on natural or biological phenomena. This study put focus on enhancing the performace of Cuckoo Search (CS) among them since it has the least number of parameters to tune. The proposed enhancement can be achieved by applying surrogate-based optimization at every cycle of CS, which fortifies the exploitation capability of the original method. The enhanced algorithm has been applied several engineering design problems with constraints. The proposed method shows comparable or superior performance to the original method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.709-726
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• 2016

Corrugated-core sandwich panels are prevalent for many applications in industries. The researches performed with the aim of optimization of such structures in the literature have considered a deterministic approach. However, it is believed that deterministic optimum points may lead to high-risk designs instead of optimum ones. In this paper, an effort has been made to provide a reliable and robust design of corrugated-core sandwich structures through stochastic and probabilistic multi-objective optimization approach. The optimization is performed using a coupling between genetic algorithm (GA), Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and finite element method (FEM). To this aim, Prob. Design module in ANSYS is employed and using a coupling between optimization codes in MATLAB and ANSYS, a connection has been made between numerical results and optimization process. Results in both cases of deterministic and probabilistic multi-objective optimizations are illustrated and compared together to gain a better understanding of the best sandwich panel design by taking into account reliability and robustness. Comparison of results with a similar deterministic optimization study demonstrated better reliability and robustness of optimum point of this study.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1027-1037
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• 2017

Penetration of renewable energy sources makes the modern interconnected power systems to have more intelligence and flexibility in the control. Hence, it is essential to maintain the system frequency and tie-line power exchange at nominal values using Load Frequency Control (LFC) for efficient, economic and reliable operation of power systems. In this paper, intelligent tuning of the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller for LFC in an interconnected power system is considered as a main objective. The chosen problem is formulated as an optimization problem and the optimal gain parameters of PID controllers are computed with three innovative swarm intelligent algorithms named Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA) and hybrid Bacterial Foraging Particle Swarm Optimization (BFPSO) and a comparative study is made between them. A new objective function designed with necessary time domain specifications using weighted sum approach is also offered in this report and compared with conventional objective functions. All the simulation results clearly reveal that, the hybrid BFPSO tuned PID controller with proposed objective function has better control performances over other optimization methodologies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.2
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• pp.221-231
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• 2019

This paper performs for the first time a simultaneous optimization for members sections along with semi-rigid beam-to-column connections for space steel frames with fixed, semi-rigid, and hinged bases using a biogeography-based optimization algorithm (BBO) and a genetic algorithm (GA). Furthermore, a member's sections optimization for a fully fixed space frame is carried out. A real and accurate simulation of semi-rigid connection behavior is considered in this study, where the semi-rigid base connections are simulated using Kanvinde and Grilli (2012) nonlinear model, which considers deformations in different base connection components under the applied loads, while beam-to-column connections are modeled using the familiar Frye and Morris (1975) nonlinear polynomial model. Moreover, the $P-{\Delta}$ effect and geometric nonlinearity are considered. AISC-LRFD (2016) specification constraints of the stress and displacement are considered as well as section size fitting constraints. The optimization is applied to two benchmark space frame examples to inspect the effect of semi-rigidity on frame weight and drift using BBO and GA algorithms.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.567-577
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• 2017

The traditional design procedure of a prestressed concrete (PC) cable-stayed bridge is complex and time-consuming. The designers have to repeatedly modify the configuration of the large number of design parameters to obtain a feasible design scheme which maybe not an economical design. In order to efficiently achieve an optimum design for PC cable-stayed bridges, a multi-parameter optimization technique is proposed. In this optimization technique, the number of prestressing tendons in girder is firstly set as one of design variables, as well as cable forces, cable areas and cross-section sizes of the girders and the towers. The stress and displacement constraints are simultaneously utilized to ensure the safety and serviceability of the structure. The target is to obtain the minimum cost design for a PC cable-stayed bridge. Finally, this optimization technique is carried out by a developed PC cable-stayed bridge optimization program involving the interaction of the parameterized automatically modeling program, the finite element structural analysis program and the optimization algorithm. A low-pylon PC cable-stayed bridge is selected as the example to test the proposed optimization technique. The optimum result verifies the capability and efficiency of the optimization technique, and the significance to optimize the number of prestressing tendons in the girder. The optimum design scheme obtained by the application can achieve a 24.03% reduction in cost, compared with the initial design.