In this paper, Multi-Microgrids (MMG) are considered as future smart distribution grids, in which small scale energy resources (SSER) are main power generation units with small scales. Optimal operation of microgrids in defined intervals is carried out to achieve economic conditions in distribution systems. The defined operating problem is optimized using a heuristic algorithm considering uncer...

This study is devoted to discrete sizing optimization of truss structures employing an efficient discrete evolutionary meta-heuristic algorithm which uses the Newton gradient-based method as its updating scheme and it is named here as Newton Meta-heuristic Algorithm (NMA). In order to enable the NMA population-based meta-heuristic to effectively explore the discrete design space, a term contain...

In this paper, we study the Generalized Bin Covering problem. For this problem an exact algorithm is introduced which can nd optimal solution for small scale instances. To nd a solution near optimal for large scale instances, a heuristic algorithm has been proposed. By computational experiments, the eciency of the heuristic algorithm is assessed.

vehicle routing problem (vrp) is one of the major problems in the transportation and distribution planning. in the most previous studies, the objective of vrp models was distance and vehicle related costs. however in many industrial cases along with routing distance, vehicle loading amount is a factor of cost function. in this paper, we formulate a mixed integer non-linear programming (minlp) m...

An emerging, yet extremely important topic in simulation application and research is simulation optimization. Emphasis in the literature, in professional conferences, and particularly in commercial software packages underscore the importance of simulation optimization. We address this topic in a more general, model optimization venue. In particular we describe the use of a genetic algorithm in ...

Operating rooms have become the most important areas in hospitals because of the scarcity and cost of resources. The present study investigates operating room scheduling and rescheduling considering the priority of surgical patients in a specialized hospital. The ultimate purpose of scheduling is to minimize patient waiting time, surgeon idle time between surgeries, and penalties for deviations...

in this paper,  a heuristic algorithm is proposed in order to solve a nonlinear lexicography goal programming (nlgp) by using an efficient initial point. some numerical experiments showed that the search quality by the proposed heuristic in a multiple objectives problem depends on the initial point features, so in the proposed approach the initial point is retrieved by data envelopment analysis...

the set covering problem (scp) is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. this paper investigates development of a local branching approach for the scp. this solution strategy is exact in nature, though it is designed to improve the heuristic behavior of the mixed integer programming solver. the algorithm parameters are tuned by design of experiments approach. the proposed method is te...