Nature-inspired optimization algorithms named meta-heuristics are found to be versatile in engineering design fields. Their adaptability is also used in various areas of the Internet of things, structural design, and thermal system design. With the very rapid progress in industrial modernization, waste heat recovery from the power generating and thermal engineering organization is an imperative key point to reduce the emission and support the government norms. However, the heat exchanger is the component applied in various heat recovery processes. Out of the available designs, shell and tube heat exchangers (SHTHEs) are the most commonly adopted for the heat recovery process. Hence, cost minimization is the major aspect while designing the heat exchanger confirming various constraints and optimized design variables. In this study, cost minimization of the SHTHE is performed by applying a novel metaheuristic algorithm which is the African vultures optimization algorithm (AVOA). Adopting the AVOA for the best-optimized value (least cost of heat exchanger) and the design parameters are realized, confirming all the constraints. It was found that the AVOA is able to pursue the best results among the rest of them and can be used for the cost optimization of the plate-fin and tube-fin heat exchanger case studies.

Thermal system optimization is always a challenging task due to several constraints and critical concepts of thermo-hydraulic aspects. Heat exchangers are one of those devices that are widely adopted in thermal industries for various applications such as cryogenics, heat recovery, and heat transfer applications. According to the flow configurations and enhancement of fins, the heat exchangers are classified as plate-fin heat exchangers, shell and tube heat exchangers, and tube-fin heat exchangers. This article addresses the economic optimization challenge of plate-fin heat exchangers using cheetah optimization (CO) algorithm. The design variables were optimized using the CO algorithm, and statistical results were compared with eight well-established algorithms. The study revealed that the cheetah algorithm is prominent in terms of realizing minimizing the overall cost of the plate-fin heat exchanger with a 100 % of success rate. Furthermore, the study suggests adopting the cheetah optimizer for solving optimization challenges in different fields.

This paper focuses on a comparision of recent algorithms such as the arithmetic optimization algorithm, the slime mold optimization algorithm, the marine predators algorithm, and the salp swarm algorithm. The slime mold algorithm (SMA) is a recent optimization algorithm. In order to strengthen its exploitation and exploration abilities, in this paper, a new hybrid slime mold algorithm-simulated annealing algorithm (HSMA-SA) has been applied to structural engineering design problems. As a result of the rules and practices that have become mandatory for fuel emissions by international organizations and governments, there is increasing interest in the design of vehicles with minimized fuel emissions. Many scientific studies have been conducted on the use of metaheuristic methods for the optimum design of vehicle components, especially for reducing vehicle weight. With the inspiration obtained from the above-mentioned methods, the HSMA-SA has been studied to solve the shape optimization of a design case to prove how the HSMA-SA can be used to solve shape optimization problems. The HSMA-SA provides better results as an arithmetic optimization algorithm than the slime mold optimization algorithm, the marine predators algorithm, and the salp swarm algorithm.

Adaptability of the metaheuristic (MH) algorithms in multidisciplinary platforms confirms its significance and effectiveness for the solution of the constraints problems. In this article, one of the imperative thermal system components-plate fin heat exchangers is economically optimized using the novel artificial gorilla troops optimization algorithms (AGTOAs). The cost optimization challenge of the PFHE includes the initial and running cost that needs to be minimized by optimizing several design variables subjecting to critical boundary conditions. To confirm the performance of the AGTOA, the statistical results obtained were compared with nine benchmark MHs algorithms. It was found that AGTO is a robust optimization algorithm because it was able to fetch the best results for the function with 100% of the success rate compared to the rest of the algorithms. Moreover, considering the superior results obtained from the AGTO, it can be applied to numerous applications of the engineering design optimization.

In this work, a new hybrid optimization algorithm (HWW-NM), which combines the Nelder-Mead local search algorithm with the water wave algorithm, is introduced to solve real-world engineering optimization problems. This paper is one of the first studies in which both the water wave algorithm and the HWW-NM are applied to processing parameters optimization for manufacturing processes. HWW-NM performance is measured using the cantilever beam problem. Additionally, a problem for milling manufacturing optimization is posed and solved to evaluate HWW-NM performance in real-world applications. The results reveal that HWW-NM is an attractive optimization approach for optimizing real-life problems.