Alopex-based evolutionary algorithm and its application to reaction kinetic parameter estimation

In this paper, a novel Alopex-based evolutionary algorithm (AEA) is proposed, whose distinguished features are stochastic selection and self-adaptive evolutionary computation. The AEA not only inherits the primary characteristics of basic evolutionary algorithms (EAs), but also possesses the merits of gradient methods and simulated annealing algorithm. It can efficiently maintain the population diversity and improve the capabilities of escaping from local optima. The numerical simulation results of 22 benchmark functions demonstrate that the performance of the proposed AEA is superior to that of the basic EAs. Finally, the new algorithm is applied to estimate the kinetic parameters of 2-chlorophenol oxidation of supercritical water. The promising results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method and show that it could be used as a reliable tool for engineering applications.