PARTICLE SWARMS APPLIED TO THE QUADRATIC ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM FOR SOLVING THE IN-CORE FUEL MANAGEMENT OPTIMIZATION

摘要

The In-Core Fuel Management Optimization (ICFMO) is a prominent and real-world combinatorial problem in Nuclear Engineering, with a large number of sub-optimal solutions, disconnected feasible regions and approximation hazards. For the sake of previous validation, optimization techniques are applied to benchmark combinatorial problems prior to applications to the ICFMO itself. In the present work, the investigation on the application of Panicle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) is reported. The Random Keys (RK), an encoding model used to map particles' positions in a continuous search space into combinatorial solutions, allowed promising results without constructive heuristics and local search. The application of PSO with RK to the QAP forms a basis for further investigation on the RK encoding scheme for the ICFMO.