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This paper summarizes the collaborative work done by CENER, Fraunhofer ISE and CRS4 within the scope of the STAGE-STE project related to heliostat field generation algorithms and their application to small heliostats (<10 m²). Radially staggered heliostat field layouts have been commonly applied to real solar fields with known results. However, their use in conjunction with small heliostats or the use of brand new ways for heliostat allocation, such natural pattern based algorithms, is still unknown. Herein, the most promising heliostat field generation algorithms are studied and compared, in annual optical efficiency terms, for different scenarios. These efficiencies correspond to the best heliostat layouts found by the optimization process that each generation algorithm can create, for three scenarios. Results show that the fields from the selected algorithms lead to similar optical efficiencies. The slight differences are not enough evidence to nominate one of the algorithms as the best choice, taking into account the inherent error of the simulation tools, the optimization process and further requirements needed in commercial applications (e.g. access paths) not coped in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a bio-inspired approach to solve the route allocation problem (RAP) in the transportation networks. The approach extends a well-known meta-heuristics algorithm with the real life constraints that are dealt with in the scheduling process (i.e. the uniform distribution of routes diversity for vehicles, the average distance travelled in a month, the driver’s rest between subsequent trips etc.). The paper is focusing on the engineering aspects of employing bio-inspired algorithms (which proved to have near-optimal results for toy-like problems) to a real-life application domain. The approach proved to be capable of preserving the software components (agents) to the complexity and dynamics of the situation when the RAP requires incremental extensions of constraints to reflect the traffic conditions in the transportation network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nondestructive testing methods have been routinely, designed, evaluated and optimized using simulation models developed using various computational techniques. The simulated signal using computational model differs from the true signal in that the signal does not simulated experimental noise. In order to use the computational models more effectively for signal processing algorithm development, experimental noise should be injected in the simulated signals. Experimental noise PDF (probability density function) can be numerically calculated from measured noise. The experimental signal PDF can then be generated by combining the simulation signal and measurement noise PDF. Sampling from experimental signal distribution is not a straight forward task as the distribution is generally not a standard parametric distribution. This paper presents a method that approximates experimental signal PDF as a mixture of Gaussian densities. Maximum-likelihood estimate of the parameters of Gaussian distributions from a given data set are computed using expectation-maximization (EM) technique. A sampling scheme from the mixture of Gaussian densities is also discussed. The overall algorithm is implemented on eddy current inspection data from steam generator (SG) tubing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate in this paper the recovery of the local volatility surface in a parametric framework similar to that of Coleman, Li and Verma [1]. The quality of a surface is assessed through a functional which is optimized; the specificity of the approach is to separate the optimization on the parametric space (performed with any suitable optimization algorithm) from the computation of the functional where we use an adjoint formulation similar to that of the optimal control; the procedure can thus incorporate information from any derivative contract compatible with the adjoint approach. The procedure was implemented and was shown to perform satisfactory on real-world data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ACS algorithms have been used in solving NP-hard and optimization problems in recent years. ACS ant colonies are homogeneous, but natural colonies are not. In this paper, a new ACS algorithm is proposed. It uses heterogeneous ant colonies which are evolved using a new type of genetic algorithm. Experimental results obtained from solving TSP problem, show the superiority of proposed algorithm over classical ACS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulation technology and optimization method have been applied in sheet metal forming process to improve design quality and shorten design cycle. While the existence of fluctuation in design variables or operation condition has great influence on the quality. In addition to that, iterative solution in numerical simulation and optimization usually take huge computational time or endure expensive experiment cost In order to eliminate effect of perturbations in design and improve design efficiency, a CAE-based six sigma robust design method is developed in this paper. In the six sigma procedure for sheet metal forming, statistical technology and dual response surface approximate model as well as algorithm of “Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)” are integrated together to perform reliability optimization and robust improvement. A deep drawing process of a rectangular cup is taken as an example to illustrate the method. The optimization solutions show that the proposed optimization procedure not only improves significantly the reliability and robustness of the forming quality, but also increases optimization efficiency with approximate model. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents several approaches for preform shape optimization in 3D forging. The process simulation is carried out using the FORGE3® finite element software, and the optimization problem regards the shape of initial axisymmetrical preforms. Several objective functions are considered, like the forging energy, the forging force or a surface defect criterion. Both deterministic and stochastic optimization algorithms are tested for 3D applications. The deterministic approach uses the sensitivity analysis that provides the gradient of the objective function. It is obtained by the adjoint-state method and semi-analytical differentiation. The study of stochastic approaches aims at comparing genetic algorithms and evolution strategies. Numerical results show the feasibility of such approaches, i.e. the achieving of satisfactory solutions within a limited number of 3D simulations, less than fifty. For a more industrial problem, the forging of a gear, encouraging optimization results are obtained. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]