Predicting Solute Transport Parameters in Saturated Porous Media Using Hybrid Algorithm

Two-dimensional simulation of water flow and solute transport below furrows: model calibration and validation

SUMMARY Many interesting inverse problems in geophysics are non-linear and multimodal. Parametrization of these problems leads to an objective function, or measure of agreement between data and model predictions, that has a complex topography with many local minima. Optimization algorithms that rely on local gradients in the objective function or that search the model space locally may become trapped in these local minima. By combining simulated annealing with the downhill simplex method, a hybrid global search algorithm is presented in this paper for non-linear, multimodal, inverse problems. The hybrid algorithm shares the advantages of both local search methods that perform well if the local model is suitable, and global methods that are able to explore efficiently the full model space. The hybrid algorithm also utilizes a larger and more complex memory to store information on the objective function than simulated annealing algorithms. The effectiveness of this new scheme is evaluated in three problems: minimization of the multidimensional Rosenbrock function, non-linear, 1 -D, acoustic waveform inversion, and residual statics. The performance of the hybrid algorithm is compared with simulated annealing and genetic algorithms and is shown to converge more rapidly and to have a higher success rate of locating the global minimum for the cases investigated.

Batch 316-type cellulose acetate membranes were characterized in terms of pure water permeability constant, solute transport parameter, and mass transfer coefficient with a reference system of aqueous sodium chloride solution. These membranes were used in the determination of reverse osmosis characteristics such as product rate and solute separation in the case of uranium sulfate solutions of different concentrations (100 to 8000 ppm) in the feed solutions. A long-term test extending over a week has been carried out with dilute uranium solutions. Reverse osmosis treatment of synthetic mine water sample showed satisfactory performance of the membranes in the separation of metal ions.

The physical and chemical nonequilibrium transport of alachlor were studied in a surface Gigger soil from different tillages through tracer studies, and batch and miscible displacement experiments. Batch experiments indicated initially fast reaction followed by slow adsorption. Adsorption and desorption results indicated time dependent hysteretic behavior and was best described by a multireaction model incorporating nonlinear equilibrium reaction, a reversible kinetic mechanism, and a consecutive irreversible mechanism. The model predicted alachlor hysteresis and adsorption-desorption kinetics satisfactorily based on parameters obtained from adsorption experiments. Tracer (Eosin Y and Blue FCF dyes) studies showed non-uniformly stained areas in undisturbed soil cores (6.4 cm i.d, 15 cm length) and indicated more pronounced preferential flow and physical nonequilibrium solute transport in no-till than in conventional tillage. Tritium breakthrough curves (BTCs) indicated earlier breakthrough associated with bimodal peaks in short pulses for no-till. The shape of BTCs were also dependent on flow direction. The superimposed experimental data from short pulses well predicted the data of long pulses. The classical convective-dispersive equation was inadequate and there was no improvement in describing tritium BTCs using physical nonequilibrium models (mobile-immobile and stochastic models) for soils from no-till. Miscible displacement results indicated that alachlor BTCs in soils of no-till were more asymmetrical, with earlier breakthrough and longer tailing than soils from conventional tillage. A multireaction transport model (MRTM) was not satisfactory for alachlor prediction using independently measured parameters from batch experiments. However, MRTM successfully described alachlor BTCs in a calibration mode where physical and chemical nonequilibrium were dominant. Best-fit parameters indicated the dominance of kinetic reactions compared with parameters from batch experiments and may be attributed to soil heterogeneity. Although no-till increased alachlor retention in batch experiments, an overall estimation based on the sum of kinetic and equilibrium retention showed no significant influence on retention by tillage. High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) chromatograms, fitted transport parameters, flow interruptions and percent recoveries indicated a significant consecutive irreversible reaction in soils of conventional tillage. Moreover, no-till increased alachlor transport based on breakthrough time compared with conventional tillage.

Prediction of suspended sediment discharge in a catchments area is very important because it can be used to evaluation the erosion hazard, management of its water resources, water quality, hydrology project management (dams, reservoirs, and irrigation) and to determine the extent of the damage that occurred in the catchments. Multiple Linear Regression analysis and artificial neural network can be used to predict the amount of daily suspended sediment discharge. Regression analysis using the least square method, whereas artificial neural networks using Radial Basis Function (RBF) and feedforward multilayer perceptron with three learning algorithms namely Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), Scaled Conjugate Descent (SCD) and Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno Quasi-Newton (BFGS). The number neuron of hidden layer is three to sixteen, while in output layer only one neuron because only one output target. The mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2 ) and coefficient of efficiency (CE) of the multiple linear regression (MLRg) value Model 2 (6 input variable independent) has the lowest the value of MAE and RMSE (0.0000002 and 13.6039) and highest R2 and CE (0.9971 and 0.9971). When compared between LM, SCG and RBF, the BFGS model structure 3-7-1 is the better and more accurate to prediction suspended sediment discharge in Jenderam catchment. The performance value in testing process, MAE and RMSE (13.5769 and 17.9011) is smallest, meanwhile R2 and CE (0.9999 and 0.9998) is the highest if it compared with the another BFGS Quasi-Newton model (6-3-1, 9-10-1 and 12-12-1). Based on the performance statistics value, MLRg, LM, SCG, BFGS and RBF suitable and accurately for prediction by modeling the non-linear complex behavior of suspended sediment responses to rainfall, water depth and discharge. The comparison between artificial neural network (ANN) and MLRg, the MLRg Model 2 accurately for to prediction suspended sediment discharge (kg/day) in Jenderan catchment area.

Process route sequencing is one of the key technologies for computer aided process planning (CAPP). In this paper, manufacturing feature was divided into several feature process elements and the precedence constraint matrix was generated by fully considering the constraint relationship among feature process elements. A hybrid algorithm, based on ant colony algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm, was proposed for process route sequencing. Considering the machine tools, cutting tools and fixtures as the manufacturing resources, minimal number of manufacturing resources changes served as the objective function to optimize the process route. The ant colony algorithm was adopted to traverse under the constraint rules among all the feature process elements, and simulated annealing algorithm was introduced to update pheromones to find the optimal process route meeting the constraint rules. To verify performance of the proposed approach, experimental studies have been conducted and comparisons have been made between this approach and some previous works. The experimental results show that the proposed approach has achieved significant improvement for process route sequencing.

Estimating the available potassium (AK) in soil can help improve field management and crop production. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is one of the most promising techniques for the fast and real-time analysis of soil AK content. However, the successful estimation of soil AK content by FTIR depends on the proper selection of appropriate spectral dimensionality reduction techniques. To magnify the subtle spectral signals concerning AK content and improve the understanding of the characteristic FTIR wavelengths of AK content, a total of 145 soil samples were collected in an agricultural site located in the southwest part of Sichuan, China, and three typical spectral dimensionality reduction methods—the successive projections algorithm (SPA), simulated annealing algorithm (SA) and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS)—were adopted to select the appropriate spectral variable. Then, partial least squares regression (PLSR) was utilized to establish AK inversion models by incorporating the optimal set of spectral variables extracted by different dimensionality reduction algorithms. The accuracy of each inversion model was tested based on the coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute value error (MAE), and the contribution of the inversion model variables was explored. The results show that: (1) The application of spectral dimensionality reduction is a useful technique for isolating specific components of multicomponent spectra, and as such is a powerful tool to improve and expand the predicted potential of the spectroscopy of soil AK content. Compared with the SA and CARS algorithms, the SPA was more suitable for soil AK content inversion. (2) The inversion model results showed that the characteristic wavelengths were mainly around 777 nm, 1315 nm, 1375 nm, 1635 nm, 1730 nm and 3568–3990 nm. (3) Comparing the performances of different inversion models, the SPA–PLSR model (R2= 0.49, RMSE = 22.80, MAE = 16.82) was superior to the SA–PLSR and CARS–PLSR models, which has certain guiding significance for the rapid detection of soil AK content.

In our previous research applied to the job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) for machine tool production, the multi-objective optimisation model based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) research had an imbalance performance between the convergence rate and the convergence precision. In this article, a new hybrid algorithm using PSO and generic algorithm (GA) is proposed to solve this particular problem. In this new algorithm, named hybrid PSO-GA algorithm (HPGA), the PSO algorithm is redefined and modified by introducing genetic operators, i.e. the crossover operator and the mutation operator, to update the particles in the population. The HPGA is then applied in heavy machinery company with minimising machines’ makespan and minimising jobs’ tardiness as the two optimal objectives. The comparisons with actual application report have illustrated that the proposed HPGA can obtain higher quality of schedule solution for machine tool production. Furthermore, with solution quality and convergence rate as the two estimation measurements metrics, some comparisons are performed in order to illustrate that the HPGA has superiority over the PSO, GA and simulated annealing algorithm (SA). Results have indicated that, with the combination of the merits of PSO and GA, the proposed HPGA approach can achieve not only better solution quality but also faster convergence rate than the PSO, GA and SA, within a reasonable computation time for high dimensions JSSP.

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) is an important problem occurring in many logistics systems. The objective of VRPTW is to serve a set of customers within their predefined time windows at minimum cost. Ant Colony System algorithm (ACS) that is capable of searching multiple search areas simultaneously in the solution space is good in diversification. On the other hand, Simulated Annealing algorithm (SA) is a local search technique that has been successfully applied to many NP-hard problems. A hybrid algorithm (IACS-SA) that combines an improved ACS with SA is proposed in this paper. The algorithm has been tested on 56 Solomon benchmark problems. The results show that our IACS-SA is competitive with other meta-heuristic approaches in the literature. The results also indicate that such a hybrid algorithm outperforms the individual heuristic alone.

Factors affecting mass transfer limited biodegradation in saturated porous media

This paper combines discrete wavelet transform (DWT), autoregressive moving average (ARMA), and XGBoost algorithm to propose a weighted hybrid algorithm named DWTs-ARMA-XGBoost (DAX) on long-time temperature series analysis. Firstly, this paper chooses the temperature data of February 1 to 20 from 1967 to 2016 of northern mountainous area in North China as the observed data. Then, we use 10 different discrete wavelet functions to decompose and reconstruct the observed data. Next, we build ARMA models on all the reconstructed data. In the end, we regard the calculations of 10 DWT-ARMA (DA) algorithms and the observed data as the labels and target of the XGBoost algorithm, respectively. Through the data training and testing of the XGBoost algorithm, the optimal weights and the corresponding output of the hybrid DAX model can be calculated. Root mean squared error (RMSE) was followed as the criteria for judging the precision. This paper compared DAX with an equal-weighted average (EWA) algorithm and 10 DA algorithms. The result shows that the RMSE of the two hybrid algorithms is much lower than that of the DA algorithms. Moreover, the bigger decrease in RMSE of the DAX model than the EWA model represents that the proposed DAX model has significant superiority in combining models which proves that DAX has significant improvement in prediction as well.

Rayleigh wave inversion using heat-bath simulated annealing algorithm

The design of hybrid metaheuristics with ideas from the simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithms fields is a fruitful research line. In this paper, we present a new hybrid algorithm based on a genetic algorithm, whose search process simulates several parallel simulated annealing processes. An empirical study comparing the new model with classic simulated annealing, hybrid metaheuristics based on evolutionary algorithms and simulated annealing, and two evolutionary algorithms, concludes that the alternative scheme for combining ideas from simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithms introduced by the proposal may improve the performance of this kind of hybrid algorithms.

Objectives Facility service districting problem(FSDP) refers to the design of facility service areas according to the facility locations and service capacities in a geographical region. The design criteria for service areas include the balance of service demand and supply, the highest service accessibility, and the spatial contiguity. The spatial contiguity is a necessity for satisfying some policies on public services, such as school districting and medical districting. However, solving the FSDP with contiguity constraints is challenging. We present a hybrid algorithm framework for solving the FSDP. Methods The algorithm is proposed based on the general local search algorithm and furtherly enhanced by multi-start, ruin-recreate, set-partitioning and other optimization strategies. The basic modules such as initial solution generation method, local search operators, solution perturbation, model building and solving, and search strategies, are provided in the framework. Using these building blocks, some exact, metaheuristic and hybrid algorithms could be implemented effectively. Five algorithms are implemented for the FSDP: Exact method by solving a mixed integer linear programming model, simulated annealing (SA) algorithm, iterative local search (ILS) algorithm, SA with set-partitioning, and ILS with set-partitioning. In addition, four instances are designed to test the algorithms. The instance size, supply-demand ratio, and geographic environment are considered in the instance design. Results There are several findings from computing experimentation: Optimal or near-optimal solutions of the instances could be obtained by CPLEX optimizer; high-quality solutions could be found by SA and ILS algorithms much more efficiently; the set-partitioning procedure is capable of improving the solution quality. Conclusions Based on the proposed algorithm framework, it is easy and flexible to design local-search based matheuristics and hybrid algorithms for the FSDP. High quality solutions could be obtained by coupling the local search with ruin-recreate perturbation and set-partitioning.

PurposeThis study constructs time series model, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and statistical topologies to examine the volatility and forecast foreign exchange rates. The Mauritian forex market has been utilized as a case study, and daily data for nominal spot rate (during a time period of five years spanning from 2014 to 2018) for EUR/MUR, GBP/MUR, CAD/MUR and AUD/MUR have been applied for the predictions.Design/methodology/approachAutoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models are used as a basis for time series modelling for the analysis, along with the non-linear autoregressive network with exogenous inputs (NARX) neural network backpropagation algorithm utilizing different training functions, namely, Levenberg–Marquardt (LM), Bayesian regularization and scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) algorithms. The study also features a hybrid kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) using the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm as an additional statistical tool to conduct financial market forecasting modelling. Mean squared error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) are employed as indicators for the performance of the models.FindingsThe results demonstrated that the GARCH model performed better in terms of volatility clustering and prediction compared to the ARIMA model. On the other hand, the NARX model indicated that LM and Bayesian regularization training algorithms are the most appropriate method of forecasting the different currency exchange rates as the MSE and RMSE seemed to be the lowest error compared to the other training functions. Meanwhile, the results reported that NARX and KPCA–SVR topologies outperformed the linear time series models due to the theory based on the structural risk minimization principle. Finally, the comparison between the NARX model and KPCA–SVR illustrated that the NARX model outperformed the statistical prediction model. Overall, the study deduced that the NARX topology achieves better prediction performance results compared to time series and statistical parameters.Research limitations/implicationsThe foreign exchange market is considered to be instable owing to uncertainties in the economic environment of any country and thus, accurate forecasting of foreign exchange rates is crucial for any foreign exchange activity. The study has an important economic implication as it will help researchers, investors, traders, speculators and financial analysts, users of financial news in banking and financial institutions, money changers, non-banking financial companies and stock exchange institutions in Mauritius to take investment decisions in terms of international portfolios. Moreover, currency rates instability might raise transaction costs and diminish the returns in terms of international trade. Exchange rate volatility raises the need to implement a highly organized risk management measures so as to disclose future trend and movement of the foreign currencies which could act as an essential guidance for foreign exchange participants. By this way, they will be more alert before conducting any forex transactions including hedging, asset pricing or any speculation activity, take corrective actions, thus preventing them from making any potential losses in the future and gain more profit.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies applying artificial intelligence (AI) while making use of time series modelling, the NARX neural network backpropagation algorithm and hybrid KPCA–SVR to predict forex using multiple currencies in the foreign exchange market in Mauritius.