An effective global harmony search algorithm for reliability problems

This paper proposes an effective global harmony search algorithm (EGHS) to solve two kinds of reliability problems: the complex (bridge) system optimization problem and the reliability–redundancy optimization problem of the overspeed protection system for a gas turbine. In general, the two problems are formulated as mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems with several constraints. The EGHS combines harmony search algorithm (HS) with concepts from the swarm intelligence of particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) to solve optimization problems. The proposed algorithm has been applied to two typical problems with results better than previously reported. The results have demonstrated that the EGHS has strong convergence and capacity of space exploration on solving reliability optimization problems.