This article explores coordinated scheduling problem arising in steelmaking and multi-refining operations. Jobs are first processed in converters and then transported downstream to be processed in refining furnaces in which two different transporters are employed in tandem at the stage of transportation. There exist multi-refining jobs. The objective is to minimize the maximum completion time s...

Hybridizing chaotic evolutionary algorithms with support vector regression (SVR) to improve forecasting accuracy is a hot topic in electricity load forecasting. Trapping at local optima and premature convergence are critical shortcomings of the tabu search (TS) algorithm. This paper investigates potential improvements of the TS algorithm by applying quantum computing mechanics to enhance the se...

This paper studies a vehicle routing problem with soft time windows and stochastic travel times. A model is developed that considers both transportation costs (total distance traveled, number of vehicles used and drivers’ total expected overtime) and service costs (early and late arrivals). We propose a Tabu Search method to solve this model. An initialization algorithm is developed to construc...

We present variants of an ant colony optimization (MO-ACO) algorithm and of an evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2) for tackling multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems, hybridized with an iterative improvement algorithm and the Robust Tabu Search algorithm. The performance of the resulting hybrid stochastic local search (SLS) algorithms is experimentally investigated for the bi-objective...

Abstract: Constraint handling is one of the most difficult parts encountered in practical engineering design optimizations. Different kinds of methods were proposed for handling constraints namely, genetic algorithm, self-adaptive penalty approach and other evolutionary algorithms. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) efficiently solved most nonlinear optimization problems with inequity constraint...

In this paper, we present a complex distribution network design problem in supply chain system which includes location and inventory decisions. Customers’ demand is generated randomly and each distribution center maintains a certain amount of safety stock in order to achieve a certain service level for the customers it services. Unlike most of past research, our model allows for multiple levels...

In this paper we introduce a method for optimisation of strategic tasks using an approximation algorithm. We propose the mathematical model and algorithm for solving this problem near optimality. An overall motivation for the development of the proposed algorithm is discussed with detailed e ciency analysis. From the end users' perspective the proposed method has practical application because i...

This paper presents a new genetic local search algorithm for the graph coloring problem. The algorithm combines an original crossover based on the notion of union of independent sets and a powerful local search operator (tabu search). This new hybrid algorithm allows us to improve on the best known results of some large instances of the famous Dimacs benchmarks.

The minimization of elements in a non-uniform antenna array is critical in some practical engineering applications such as satellite and mobile communications. However, due to the complexity in the synthesis of an antenna array, the available techniques are not equally successful for reducing the element number of a nonuniform antenna array with as few elements as possible with respect to both ...