Metaheuristic layout design of a 2 billion euro science facility

A conceptual design process is described, whereby the layout of a modern, multi-MW spallation neutron source is optimised using metaheuristics. This was achieved by coupling several well-known analytical approximations of positive and negative performance metrics with a genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO). This will be contrasted with a parallel, manual study that was initiated immediately after. Overall, the metaheuristic method converged on superior results, and was generated with an order of magnitude reduction in total labour relative to the manual study. The baseline described in this report has become the real-world layout at the European Spallation Source (ESS), currently under construction in Sweden.