Optimum Sizing Design of Steel Frame Structures Using Evaporation Rate-Based Water Cycle Algorithm with Greedy Selection

The evaporation rate-based water cycle algorithm (WCA-ER) is one of the famous nature-inspired metaheuristic optimization methods asserted to simulate principal idea behind observation of water cycle process with evaporation rate where how rivers and streams flow to the sea. In WCA-ER, an evaporation rate notion was identified formatively to standard WCA for achieving a better balance between the exploration and exploitation phases. This enables making better choice decision. Furthermore, in this study the WCA-ER is equipped with a greedy selection scheme bringing about much efficient search technique for obtaining the optimal designs by maintaining solution diversity and enhancing the exploitation phase. So, the main objective of this paper is to attain optimal sizing designs of both planar and space steel frame structures using WCA-ER with greedy selection. In this context, the WCA-ER with greedy selection choses the W steel sections to assign the member groups treated as design variables. Not only the strength and stability constraints imposing from LRFD-AISC code of practice design, but also the deflection, drift, and geometric constraints are taken into account in design optimization. The optimally frame designs obtained by WCA-ER with greedy selection are tabulated and they are compared with previously reported optimum solutions via other metaheuristic algorithms. The achieved best feasible steel frame structures for design examples illustrate the robustness and efficiency of the algorithmic performance of the WCA-ER with greedy selection.