Optimum Tuning of Mass Dampers by Using a Hybrid Method Using Harmony Search and Flower Pollination Algorithm

In this study, a new approach is proposed for optimization of tuned mass damper positioned on the top of seismic structures. The usage of metaheuristic algorithms is a well-known and effective technique for optimum tuning of parameters such as mass, period and damping ratio. The aim of the study is to generate a new methodology in order to improve the computation capacity and precision of the final results. For that reason, harmony search (HS) and flower pollination algorithm (FPA) are hybridized by proposing a probability based approach. In the methodology, global and local search processes of HS are used together with global and local pollination stages of FPA. In that case, four different types of generation are used. In the methodology, these four types of generation have the same chance at the start of the optimization process and probabilities are reduced when the corresponding type of the generation is chosen. If an improvement is provided for the objective of the optimization, the probability of the effective type is increased. The proposed method has an effective convergence by providing improvement of the optimization objective comparing to classical FPA.