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The sine-cosine algorithm is concerned as a recent meta-heuristic method that takes benefit of orthogonal functions to scale its walking steps through the search space. The idea is utilized here in a different manner to develop a modified sine-cosine algorithm (MSCA). It is based on the controlled perturbation about current solutions by applying a novel combination of sine and cosine functions. The desired transition from exploration to exploitation phases mainly relies on such a term that provides continued fluctuations within a dynamic amplitude. Performance of the proposed algorithm is further evaluated on a set of thirteen test functions with unimodal and multimodal search spaces, as well as on engineering and structural problems in a variety of discrete, continuous and mixed discrete-continuous types. Numerical simulations show that MSCA can find the best literature results for such benchmarks problems. Additional fair comparisons, declare competitive performance of the proposed method with other meta-heuristic algorithms and its enhancement with respect to the standard sine-cosine algorithm.

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Diagrids are of practical interest in high-rise buildings due to their architectural configuration and efficiency in withstanding lateral loads by exterior diagonal members. In the present work, diagrid models are screened based on a sizing optimization approach. Section index of each member group is treated as a discrete design variable in the optimization problem to be solved. The structural constraints are evaluated due to Load and Resistant Design Factor regulations under both gravitational and wind loadings. The research is threefold: first, falcon optimization algorithm is utilized as a meta-heuristic paradigm for such a large-scale and highly constrained discrete problem. Second, the effect of geometry variation in diagrids on minimal structural weight is studied for 18 diagrid models via three different heights (12, 20 and 30 stories) and three diagrid angles. Third, distinct cases of rigid and flexible bases are compared to study the effect of such boundary conditions on the results. The effect of soil flexibility beneath the foundation on the optimal design was found highly dependent on the diagrid geometry. The best weight and performance in most of the treated examples belong to the geometry that covers two stories by every grid line on the flexible-base.
 

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Clustering is a well-known solution to deal with complex database features as an unsupervised machine learning technique. One of its practical applications is the selection of non-similar earthquakes for consequent analysis of structural models. In the present work, appropriate clustering of seismic data is searched via optimization. Silhouette value is penalized and used to define the performance objective. A stochastic search algorithm is combined with a greedy search to solve the problem for distinct sets of near–field and far-field ground motion records. The concept of coherency is borrowed from optics to propose a coherency metric for earthquake signals before and after being filtered by structural models. It is then evaluated for various cases of structural response-to-record and response-to-response comparisons. According to the results the proposed coherency detection procedure performs well; confirmed by distinguished structural response spectra between different clusters.

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The tuned mass damper inerter systems have recently received considerable attention in the field of structural control. The present work offers a practical configuration of such a device, called double tuned mass damper inerter (DTMDI) that connects the inerter into the damper masses rather than be attached to the main structure. Soil-structure interaction is also taken into account for the soft and dense soils as well as for the fixed based condition. The H∞  norm of the transfer functions for the roof response is minimized as the objective function. The parameters of DTMDI are optimized using opposition-switching search as an efficient parameter-less algorithm in comparison with lightning attachment procedure optimization, sine cosine algorithm and particle swarm optimization. The system performance is evaluated in the frequency domain, as well as in the time domain under various earthquakes including far-field records, near-field records with forward directivity and with fling-step. The results show superiority of opposition-switching search for optimal design of the proposed DTMDI so that it can significantly reduce both the roof displacement and acceleration response for all the SSI conditions.