A comparative study of several nature-inspired algorithms in steel deck floor system cost optimization

Steel deck floor systems can be considered as one of the main components of a structure. As technology advances, the role of optimization is used in many aspects of structural designs. Steel deck floor systems are one of many components that are usually optimized to look for its optimum cost but are still able to hold the structure. This study compares the performance of the particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), differential evolution (DE), and symbiotic organisms search (SOS), that categorized as nature-inspired algorithms, in the optimization of a steel deck floor system. The variables considered are the edge beams, interior beams, and the composite steel deck. The results show that the SOS gives the most optimum cost with a better average and a perfect success rate.