Optimization of Truss structures with discrete variables by enhanced whale algorithm

Whale optimization (WOA) is a new human-based search algorithm of meta-heuristic which simulate the social behavior of humpback whales in the bubble-net hunting strategy. Humpback whales can recognize the location of their prey and encircle them. Then swim around the prey within a shrinking circle and along a spiral-shaped path simultaneously, and then attack to them. In this paper, an enhanced whale optimization (EWOA) which uses a way in order to investigate all of the search space. In addition, a mechanism is presented to escape from local optima. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with standard WOA and some optimization techniques on some standard discrete truss structural design as the numerical examples of this study. the obtained results indicate that the proposed EWOA has better computational performance compared with other algorithms.

Keywords:

Meta-heuristic , Whale optimization , Discrete variable , Optimum design , truss structures