Pioneer Pareto artificial bee colony algorithm for three-dimensional objective space optimization of composite-based layered radar absorber

Abstract

A three-dimensional objective space (3DOS) optimization strategy using an enhanced multi-objective artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for the design optimization of layered radar absorbing material (LRAM) is presented in this study. The multi-objective exploitation ability of ABC is improved with regard to the convergence and diversity by integrating a pioneer Pareto (PP) solution to the onlooker bee phase, which is selected from the Pareto optimal set. Initially, the performance of PP-ABC is successfully verified by a comparison with ABC and the well-known multi-objective counterparts like particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) algorithms. The comparison is carried out through five multi-objective benchmark functions with respect to three favorable and reliable multi-objective indicators such as hypervolume (HV), HV ratio and Pareto sets proximity (PSP). The employed three objective functions to be the dimensions of 3DOS are weighted bandwidth-based total reflection coefficient involving sub-reflection waves of a wide oblique incident angular range 0°–75°, the total thickness and the number of layers. By using PP-ABC, a 3D designed LRAM operating at a large frequency band of 2–18 GHz is then designed for synchronously minimizing the three objective vectors by finding out the design variables: thickness and material types. Meanwhile, the material types of the proposed LRAM are optimally picked up from a composite material database with 51 specimens from 9 previously reported studies (51/9#database). In order to point out the effectiveness of the proposed 3DOS optimization strategy, three LRAMs are also compared with respective reported designs whose material type is selected from a database with 6 specimens (6/1#database). The results show that the proposed LRAMs are hence the global optimal designs in terms of all objective functions thanks to the proposed 3DOS optimization strategy based on PP-ABC.