Quality improvement of electrochemical discharge machining process using firefly algorithm: a case study

摘要

In this paper, the firefly algorithm is employed with the RSM (response surface methodology) to investigate the electro chemical discharge machining (ECDM) process in terms of effects of the process parameters on the output quality characteristics, as well as, to set the optimal process parameters for achieving the better product quality. Firefly algorithm is a powerful nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm that can solve complex optimisation problems, both, single objective and multi objective optimisation problems. It is noticed that firefly algorithm can find the optimal solution, efficiently, within very less timescale. It is also very effective in predicting the parametric trends of responses. The results obtained by using firefly algorithm for parametric optimisation of ECDM are compared with those derived by the past researchers, which prove the applicability and effectiveness of this algorithm in enhancing the performance of the ECDM process.