• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2023

Indirect determination of pan evaporation (PE) has been highly regarded, due to the advantages of intelligent models employed for this objective. This work pursues improving the reliability of a popular intelligent model, namely multi-layer perceptron (MLP) through surmounting its computational knots. Available climatic data of Fresno weather station (California, USA) is used for this study. In the first step, testing several most common trainers of the MLP revealed the superiority of the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm. It, therefore, is considered as the classical training approach. Next, the optimum configurations of two metaheuristic algorithms, namely cuttlefish optimization algorithm (CFOA) and teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) are incorporated to optimally train the MLP. In these two models, the LM is replaced with metaheuristic strategies. Overall, the results demonstrated the high competency of the MLP (correlations above 0.997) in the presence of all three strategies. It was also observed that the TLBO enhances the learning and prediction accuracy of the classical MLP (by nearly 7.7% and 9.2%, respectively), while the CFOA performed weaker than LM. Moreover, a comparison between the efficiency of the used metaheuristic optimizers showed that the TLBO is a more time-effective technique for predicting the PE. Hence, it can serve as a promising approach for indirect PE analysis.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.753-763
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• 2020

The early prediction of Compressive Strength of Concrete (CSC) is a significant task in the civil engineering construction projects. This study, therefore, is dedicated to introducing two novel hybrids of neural computing, namely Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) and Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO) for predicting the CSC. The algorithms are applied to a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) network to create the SCE-MLP and TLBO-MLP ensembles. The results revealed that, first, intelligent models can properly handle analyzing and generalizing the non-linear relationship between the CSC and its influential parameters. For example, the smallest and largest values of the CSC were 17.19 and 58.53 MPa, and the outputs of the MLP, SCE-MLP, and TLBO-MLP range in [17.61, 54.36], [17.69, 55.55] and [18.07, 53.83], respectively. Second, applying the SCE and TLBO optimizers resulted in increasing the correlation of the MLP products from 93.58 to 97.32 and 97.22%, respectively. The prediction error was also reduced by around 34 and 31% which indicates the high efficiency of these algorithms. Moreover, regarding the computation time needed to implement the SCE-MLP and TLBO-MLP models, the SCE is a considerably more time-efficient optimizer. Nevertheless, both suggested models can be promising substitutes for laboratory and destructive CSC evaluative models.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.339-352
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• 2022

Studying slope stability is an important branch of civil engineering. In this way, engineers have employed machine learning models, due to their high efficiency in complex calculations. This paper examines the robustness of various novel optimization schemes, namely equilibrium optimizer (EO), Harris hawks optimization (HHO), water cycle algorithm (WCA), biogeography-based optimization (BBO), dragonfly algorithm (DA), grey wolf optimization (GWO), and teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO) for enhancing the performance of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) in slope stability prediction. The hybrid models estimate the factor of safety (F_S) of a cohesive soil-footing system. The role of these algorithms lies in finding the optimal parameters of the membership function in the fuzzy system. By examining the convergence proceeding of the proposed hybrids, the best population sizes are selected, and the corresponding results are compared to the typical ANFIS. Accuracy assessments via root mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and Pearson correlation coefficient showed that all models can reliably understand and reproduce the F_S behavior. Moreover, applying the WCA, EO, GWO, and TLBO resulted in reducing both learning and prediction error of the ANFIS. Also, an efficiency comparison demonstrated the WCA-ANFIS as the most accurate hybrid, while the GWO-ANFIS was the fastest promising model. Overall, the findings of this research professed the suitability of improved intelligent models for practical slope stability evaluations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.359-370
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• 2017

This study presents a particle swarm optimization algorithm integrated with weighted particle concept and improved fly-back technique. The rationale behind this integration is to utilize the affirmative properties of these new terms to improve the search capability of the standard particle swarm optimizer. Improved fly-back technique introduced in this study can be a proper alternative for widely used penalty functions to handle existing constraints. This technique emphasizes the role of the weighted particle on escaping from trapping into local optimum(s) by utilizing a recursive procedure. On the other hand, it guaranties the feasibility of the final solution by rejecting infeasible solutions throughout the optimization process. Additionally, in contrast with penalty method, the improved fly-back technique does not contain any adjustable terms, thus it does not inflict any extra ad hoc parameters to the main optimizer algorithm. The improved fly-back approach, as independent unit, can easily be integrated with other optimizers to handle the constraints. Consequently, to evaluate the performance of the proposed method on solving the truss weight minimization problems with discrete variables, several benchmark examples taken from the technical literature are examined using the presented method. The results obtained are comparatively reported through proper graphs and tables. Based on the results acquired in this study, it can be stated that the proposed method (integrated particle swarm optimizer, iPSO) is competitive with other metaheuristic algorithms in solving this class of truss optimization problems.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.677-691
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• 2022

Water cycle algorithm (WCA) has been a very effective optimization technique for complex engineering problems. This study employs the WCA for simultaneous prediction of heating load (L_H) and cooling load (L_C) in residential buildings. This algorithm is responsible for optimally tuning a neural network (NN). Utilizing 614 records, the behavior of the L_H and L_C is explored and the captured knowledge is then used to predict for 154 unanalyzed building conditions. Since the WCA is a population-based algorithm, different numbers of the searching agents were tested to find the most optimum configuration. It was observed that the best solution is discovered by 500 agents. A comparison with five newly-developed benchmark optimizers, namely equilibrium optimizer (EO), multi-tracker optimization algorithm (MTOA), slime mould algorithm (SMA), multi-verse optimizer (MVO), and electromagnetic field optimization (EFO) revealed that the WCANN predicts the desired parameters with considerably larger accuracy. Obtained root mean square errors (1.4866, 2.1296, 2.8279, 2.5727, 2.5337, and 2.3029 for the L_H and 2.1767, 2.6459, 3.1821, 2.9732, 2.9616, and 2.6890 for the L_C) indicated that the most reliable prediction was presented by the proposed model. The EFONN, however, provided a more time-effective solution. Lastly, an explicit predictive formula was elicited from the WCANN.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.205-218
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• 2022

Proper calculation of splitting tensile strength (STS) of concrete has been a crucial task, due to the wide use of concrete in the construction sector. Following many recent studies that have proposed various predictive models for this aim, this study suggests and tests the functionality of three hybrid models in predicting the STS from the characteristics of the mixture components including cement compressive strength, cement tensile strength, curing age, the maximum size of the crushed stone, stone powder content, sand fine modulus, water to binder ratio, and the ratio of sand. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network incorporates invasive weed optimization (IWO), cuttlefish optimization algorithm (CFOA), and electrostatic discharge algorithm (ESDA) which are among the newest optimization techniques. A dataset from the earlier literature is used for exploring and extrapolating the STS behavior. The results acquired from several accuracy criteria demonstrated a nice learning capability for all three hybrid models viz. IWO-MLP, CFOA-MLP, and ESDA-MLP. Also in the prediction phase, the prediction products were in a promising agreement (above 88%) with experimental results. However, a comparative look revealed the ESDA-MLP as the most accurate predictor. Considering mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) index, the error of ESDA-MLP was 9.05%, while the corresponding value for IWO-MLP and CFOA-MLP was 9.17 and 13.97%, respectively. Since the combination of MLP and ESDA can be an effective tool for optimizing the concrete mixture toward a desirable STS, the last part of this study is dedicated to extracting a predictive formula from this model.