Abstract: Because of their superior problem-solving ability, nature-inspired optimization algorithms are being regularly used in solving complex real-world optimization problems. Engineering academics have recently focused on meta-heuristic algorithms to solve various optimization challenges. Among the state-of-the-art algorithms, Differential Evolution (DE) is one of the most successful algorithms and is frequently used to solve various industrial problems. Over the previous 2 decades, DE has been heavily modified to improve its capabilities. Several DE variations secured positions in IEEE CEC competitions, establishing their efficacy. However, to our knowledge, there has never been a comparison of performance across various CEC-winning DE versions, which could aid in determining which is the most successful. In this study, the performance of DE and its eight other IEEE CEC competition-winning variants are compared. First, the algorithms have evaluated IEEE CEC 2019 and 2020 bound-constrained functions, and the performances have been compared. One unconstrained problem from IEEE CEC 2011 problem suite and five other constrained mechanical engineering design problems, out of which four issues have been taken from IEEE CEC 2020 non-convex constrained optimization suite, have been solved to compare the performances. Statistical analyses like Friedman's test and Wilcoxon's test are executed to verify the algorithm’s ability statistically. Performance analysis exposes that none of the DE variants can solve all the problems efficiently. Performance of SHADE and ELSHADE-SPACMA are considerable among the methods used for comparison to solve such mechanical design problems.

Key words: Diferential evolution , · Metaheuristics , · IEEE CEC , · Mechanical design problem