the synthesis of heat integrated multi-component distillation systems is complex due to its huge search space for structural combination and optimization computation. to provide a systematic approach and tools for the synthesis design of distillation systems, a new method for modeling heat integrated columns is presented, and the operating cost objective function is minimized by improved harmon...

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a class of heuristic algorithms proposed to solve optimization problems. The idea was inspired by the behavior of real ants, related to their ability to find the shortest path between the nest and the food source. ACO has been applied successfully to different kinds of problems. So, this manuscript describes the development and application of an ACO algorithm to...

the principal effects of mass degradation on polymer matrix composites (pmcs) are the decay of mechanical properties such as strength, elongation, and resilience. this degradation is a common problem of the pmcs under thermal cycling conditions. in this article, composite degradation was investigated by measurement of total mass loss (tml) using the taguchi approach. thermal cycling tests were ...

Composites show two distinctive features that affect the way in which they are optimized. Firstly, manufacturing strongly interacts with structural performance. Secondly, composites can be described at different scales. This article summarizes contributions that address both features. It is shown how design guidelines can be accounted for in laminate blended design through stacking sequence tab...

improving mechanical properties of composites based on strength-to-weight ratio has been gained much attention in various applications. having the most resistant and at the same time the lightest and the most economical structure is believed as an aim in these applications. these three factors are usually opposed to each other. so, applying optimization algorithms for improving mechanical prope...

3D integrated circuits (3DICs) with through-silicon vias (TSVs) are an important direction for semiconductor-based products and “More than Moore” scaling. However, 3DICs bring simultaneous challenges of reliability (power and temperature in stacks of thinned die) as well as variability (performance and power) in advanced technology nodes. In this paper, we study variability-reliability interact...

Laminated plate optimization is a combinatorial problem where the objective is to find the optimal sequence of materials from a given set, along with the respective fiber orientation. Due to manufacturing reasons, the size of each ply can only take a discrete number of values and, together with the available materials, results in an integer programming problem. Therefore, an approach based on G...

The use of composite materials has been increasing in the aeronautical industry for use in primary structures, such as wing and fuselage, where it can significantly save structural weight. Composite laminate optimization can be done as a discrete variable problem constrained by material strength, buckling and natural frequency. The solution for discrete variable problem based on combinatorial o...

Fracture analysis of glass/epoxy composites under different thermal cycling conditions is considered. Temperature difference, stacking sequence, fiber volume fraction and number of thermal cycles are selected as the experimental design factors. The Taguchi method is implemented to design of the experiment and an apparatus is developed for automatic thermal cycling tests. The tensile tests are d...