Development of an Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm and Its Application in the Optimal Design of Nuclear Power System

This article focuses on the development of an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm and its application in the optimal design of the nuclear power system, whose goal is to find a combination of system parameter values that minimize the weight of the system given the power capacity requirement and safety criteria. An improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm was developed using the feasibility rule constraints handling method, crossover and mutation operator. Using the improved compound shape algorithm to do the local search after the particle swarm reaches a satisfactory point. The algorithm gave satisfactory optimization results from both search efficiency and accuracy perspectives. This IPSO successfully solved the design optimization problem of nuclear power system. It is an advanced and efficient methodology that can be applied to the similar optimization problems in other areas.