Chapter 15 - Constraint optimization: solving engineering design problems using Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA)

Abstract

The presence of constraints in an engineering design problem complicates the search space solution and reduces the feasible region finding capabilities. Any particular constrained design problem is subject to numerous iterations of trial-and-error to find an optimal constraint handling methodology and fine tuning its requisite parameters. A drawback from such an approach is that it requires intensive computational load specially if the cost function is resourcefully expensive to locate. The work presented in this work suggests the use of a meta-heuristic algorithm namely; Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), to solve the constraint optimization problems. The nature inspired algorithm follows a spiral bubble-net hunting strategy, thereby it does not get stuck on a local minima solution even if the search space is discontinuous. For the validation and verification of the algorithm, WOA is applied against 12 structural engineering optimization problems reported in research literature. Performance of the algorithm is further gauged by drawing a comparison with other state-of-the-art meta-heuristic algorithms. Results indicate that the WOA algorithm by far provides the better optimal solutions than the existing methods. Finally, the salient features and future implications are discussed in detail.