Citation

Hasalová L, Ira J, Jahoda M. Fire Safety J. 2016; 80: 71-82.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.firesaf.2016.01.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) algorithm was first used to estimate kinetic parameters of the hypothetical three component charring material decomposing in three parallel steps and consequently applied to real material (beech wood). The study aims to promote the qualified engineering use of the algorithm in the field of pyrolysis modeling by testing the influence of the algorithmic setting, the initial parameter estimate and the search space size on the optimization run effectiveness and efficiency. Three strategies of choosing the search space when having no information about initial parameter values (no qualified guess or estimate of initial parameter values) in case of decomposition patterns that cannot be described by a single effective reaction are discussed. Using the synthetic test problem SCE was highly successful in all three case studies independent of the search space size and overlapping its boundaries. Applied to the real world material, strong compensation effect between parameters was observed. SCE however proved to be capable of providing satisfactory solution for highly challenging blind search.

Language: en