International Conference on Applied Mathematics in Engineering (ICAME)

June 27-29, 2018 - Balikesir, Turkey

Structural Design Optimization through Water Cycle Algorithm with Evaporation Rate

Osman Tunca1, Ibrahim Aydogdu2, Ferhat Erdal2, Serdar Carbas1

1
Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Civil Engineering Department, Karaman, Turkey
2
Akdeniz University, Civil Engineering Department, Antalya, Turkey

Abstract
Generally, the optimization techniques utilized in structural design optimization could be categorized into
two main groups such as classical and metaheuristic search methods. The first groups, namely classical
optimization methods such as linear programming, nonlinear programming and optimality criteria, often
require substantial gradient information. The initial selected points have directly effect on the final solution
and the computational operation number rises depending on the increment of the size of the structure [1].
Usually, the most of the real-world structural engineering designs are complicated and their solutions require
more sophisticated methods than conventional mathematical methods to be handled. Because of this
requirement, new recent trend optimization techniques which are so-called metaheuristic search methods are
evinced. These methods do not need any initial data as in the conventional mathematical programming and
have preferable global search talent than the classical optimization algorithms [2]. The last addition to the
metaheuristic algorithms is denominated as Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA). The principal idea behind WCA
is observation of water cycle process and how rivers and streams flow to the sea [3]. In order to enhance the
global search ability of WCA, a new concept of evaporation rate for different rivers and streams is defined
so-called WCA with evaporation rate (WCA-ER) [4]. The WCA-ER reveals a better balance between
exploration and exploitation phases compared to the standard WCA. It is shown that the WCA-ER offers
high potential in finding all global optimum of structural design problems in which the weight minimization
is treated as objective function while satisfying the certain design constraints. The WCA and WCA-ER are
tested using several structural design problems and the obtained results show that the WCA-ER obtained
minimum design weight and converges to the global solution faster. According to the optimum designs
yielding via WCA-ER, the efficiency of the proposed method on structural design optimization problems are
represented.

Keywords: Optimal structural design, metaheuristic search techniques, water cycle algorithm.

References
[1] Saka, M.P., Carbas, S., Aydogdu, I. & Akin A. (2015). Use of Swarm Intelligence in Structural Steel Design
Optimization, In: X-S Yang, G. Bekdas, S.M. Nigdeli, eds. Metaheuristics and Optimization in Civil
Engineering, Springer International Publishing, 43-73.
[2] Coello Coello, CA. (2002). Theoretical and numerical constraint-handling techniques used with
evolutionary algorithms: A survey of the state of the art. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
Engineering, 191(11–12), 1245–87.
[3] Eskandar, H., Sadollah, A., Bahreininejad, A. & Hamdi, M. (2012). Water cycle algorithm-A novel
metaheuristic optimization method for solving constrained engineering optimization problems. Computers
and Structers, 110-111, 151-166.
[4] Sadollah, A., Eskandar, H., Bahreininejad, A. & Kim, J-H. (2015). Water cycle algorithm with evaporation
rate for solving constrainedand unconstrained optimization problems. Applied Soft Computing, 30, 58-71.


Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

http://icame.balikesir.edu.tr 169