Water cycle algorithm – A novel metaheuristic optimization method for solving constrained engineering optimization problems

This paper presents a new optimization technique called water cycle algorithm (WCA) which is applied to a number of constrained optimization and engineering design problems. The fundamental concepts and ideas which underlie the proposed method is inspired from nature and based on the observation of water cycle process and how rivers and streams flow to the sea in the real world. A comparative study has been carried out to show the effectiveness of the WCA over other well-known optimizers in terms of computational effort (measures as number of function evaluations) and function value (accuracy) in this paper.

► A novel optimization algorithm called the water cycle algorithm (WCA).
► WCA concepts are inspired from nature and based on water cycle process.
► WCA with embedded constraint handling method for solving constrained problems.
► WCA for solving engineering optimization problems.
► The function values are reduced to near optimum point in the early iterations.