Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70

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Finite Elements in Analysis and Design

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Optimum design of run-flat tire insert rubber by genetic algorithm

J.R. Cho a,b,n, J.H. Lee a, K.M. Jeong c, K.W. Kim c
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, Republic of Korea
b
Research & Development Institute of Midas IT, Gyeonggi 463-400, Repubic of Korea
c
R&D Center of Kumho Tire Co. Ltd., Gwangju 500-757, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A generalized multi-objective optimization method making use of genetic algorithm (GA) is introduced,
Received 3 June 2011 in order to simultaneously improve the riding comfort and the durability of run-flat tire by optimally
Received in revised form tailoring the shape and stiffness of the sidewall insert rubber. The sensitivity analysis invoking the CPU
12 November 2011
time-consuming finite element analyses is replaced with the genetic evolution and the fitness of each
Accepted 19 December 2011
genome in the population is evaluated by utilizing the response surfaces of objective functions
Available online 12 January 2012
approximated by ANN. It is confirmed through the numerical experiment that a number of Pareto
Keywords: solutions of the shape and stiffness of the sidewall insert rubber for different combinations of weighting
Run-flat tire factors can be successfully obtained. As well, the reliability of the Pareto solutions has been justified
Multi-objective optimization
from the comparison with the direct finite element analysis.
Insert rubber
& 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Riding comfort and durability
Genetic algorithm
Aspiration level adjustment
Pareto solution

1. Introduction Even though the structural composition as well as the type of

Compared with non-pneumatic tires, the pneumatic tire
inflated with air provides various advantages in the major tire
driving performances such as the riding comfort, the handling and
cornering and the rolling over obstacles. Thanks to these excellent
driving performances, the pneumatic tire has become a standard
in the tire community since it was introduced by Dunlop in
1887 [1]. Nevertheless, it still suffers from two main problems
that the puncture may result in the total failure and the blowout
at high speeds may lead to a dangerous car accident. In such
situations, the only way to drive on the road again is to replace
the damaged tire with a spare tire in trunk room. In order to
overcome this inherent drawback of pneumatic tire, Chrysler and
US Royal introduced a concept of run-flat tire in 1958.
As indicated by the term run-flat, it enables vehicles to be
driven on the road at normal speeds for limited distances even
after puncture occurs. Several types of run-flat tires have been
developed by tire makers in the world since its concept was
introduced, and the representative ones are the banded tire
introduced in 1976 [2] and the self-supporting tires with an
interior supporting ring or sidewall reinforced rubbers [3,4].
n
Corresponding author at: School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National
University, Pusan 609-735, Republic of Korea. Tel.: þ82 51 510 3088;
fax: þ 82 51 514 7640.
E-mail address: jrcho@pusan.ac.kr (J.R. Cho).
run-flat tire is different for different tire makers, nowadays the
run-flat tire with the sidewall reinforced rubbers is a mainstream
thanks to its superior riding comfort and durability. It has been
reported that this run-flat tire is able to run at zero internal
pressure, fully loaded, for a maximum of 150 km at 80 km/h [4].
The sidewall reinforced run-flat tire is also inflated as conven-
tional pneumatic tire and the internal pressure level is dependent on
the vehicle on which it is fitted. But, at normal driving condition
before puncture, the over-stiffened and over-weighted sidewall
rubber insert makes the major driving performances such as the
riding comfort and the rolling resistance worse than the conven-
tional pneumatic tire. Contrary to the sidewall of conventional
pneumatic tire, the insert rubbers of the sidewall reinforced run-
flat tire provides the flexural stiffness capable of supporting the
vehicle weight even at zero internal pressure. Nevertheless, the
sidewall reinforced run-flat tire does also show the sudden increase
of the peak strain energy and temperature when the tire is flatted,
which significantly influences the tire durability. Thus, the design of
the insert rubber which guarantees both the riding comfort at
normal driving condition and the durability at puncture becomes
a core technique in the design of the sidewall reinforced run-flat tire.
According to our literature survey, a common feature of the tire
optimization methods introduced so far is the necessity of sensitiv-
ity analysis to seek the direction vector of design variables. Regard-
less of whether the sensitivity analysis scheme is direct or indirect,
the mathematical sensitivity schemes evaluate the gradient of

0168-874X/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.finel.2011.12.006
 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70 61

Nomenclature Ncase
i case number of the ith design variable
bi binary bits
X design variable vector Y0G initial population of genomes
‘
nd number of design variables Ak,
i fitness value of the ith genome at the ‘th genetic
XI the Ith design variable vector evolution
‘
ng number of design variable groups pk,
i
probability of the ith genome at the ‘th genetic
fi(X) individual single-objective functions evolution
‘
no number of single-objective functions Ak,
TOT sum of the fitness values of all the genomes at the ‘th
F(X) multi-objective function genetic evolution
‘
gj(X) the jth constraints qk,
i
accumulated probability of the ith genome at the ‘th
fi
n
ideal level for the ith single-objective function genetic evolution
f^
i aspiration level for the ith single-objective function Ncon
GA maximum repetition times of successive generations
Fk(X) weighted multi-objective function at the kth trade-off with the best fitness unchanged
iteration NfGA
or
minimum generation number preset for the initial
wki weighting factor of the ith single-objective function forced interation
TAR
Ak(X, rp) unconstrained multi-objective function at the kth fi target output data for single-objective functions fi
INP
trade-off iteration fi input data for single-objective functions fi
OUT
rp penalty parameter fi output signal of the ith single-objective function
ckj scaling factors for the jth constraint from ANN
Npop population size wij connecting weights in ANN
mnd size of the binary vector eANN convergence tolerance for determining the connect-
Gi the ith genome (design model) in the population ing weights wij
Ncase
TOT total cases of design variable vector X NDOE number of experiments in DOE

objective functions subject to a given set of constraints [5–7]. Thus,
an underlying assumption for the conventional tire optimization
problems is that the design variables, objective function and con-
straints are continuous within the predefined design domain.
It implies that the conventional sensitivity-driven optimization
methods are restricted to improve the initial design models exhibit-
ing a continuous spectral variation of the performances with respect
to the predefined continuous design variables and constraints. For
reference, in our previous work [7] the carcass contour was
optimally tailored according to the sensitivity-driven multi-objec-
tive optimization method with the help of ANN and the satisficing
trade-off algorithm (STOM) [16], where not only the carcass contour
but also the carcass tension distribution and the peak strain energy
at the belt edge were characterized by continuous functions.
As an alternative way to replace the conventional sensitivity
analysis, the evolution process of a number of design model
candidates using GA has been widely adopted for various engi-
neering applications since Holland [8] laid down its theoretical
framework in 1975 [9–12]. A best design model in the optimum
design using GA is chosen through the iterative genetic evolution
composed of fitness test, reproduction, crossover and mutation
operations. As a result, both the sensitivity analysis and the
direction vector search which are essential for the conventional
sensitivity-driven optimizations are completely unnecessary. But,
its extension to the tire optimization was somewhat later, started
from the late of 1990s. Hoffmeister and Bernard [13] applied GA
to the optimum arrangement of tread pitch and Abe et al. [14]
used GA for the optimum tread belt design.
In a series of our previous works [7,15,16], this paper intends
to present a generalized multi-objective optimization method
making use of GA, in order to simultaneously enhance the
passenger comfort and the durability of a sidewall reinforced
run-flat tire by optimally tailoring the sidewall insert rubber. The
fitness of each tire design model in the population is evaluated by
utilizing the response surface of the objective functions approxi-
mated using ANN. Instead of seeking an optimum solution by
controlling the aspiration levels [17], we present a number of
possible Pareto solutions for different weighting factors.
2. Problem description
The tire sidewall becomes flat when a normal pneumatic tire is
punctured because the internal air filled with the preset pressure
level quickly gets out. As a result, the tire axis becomes lower and
the sidewall is forced to be squeezed between the aluminum
wheel and the ground. The underlying idea of run-flat tires is to
protect the sidewall from being flat even when the internal
pressure level becomes zero. Since the concept of run-flat was
introduced in the late 1950s, the worldwide intensive research

Fig. 1. Run-flat tires: (a) banded type; (b) support ring type and (c) sidewall reinforcement type.
62 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70
efforts have focused on the development of high-performance
run-flat tire. In general, the major items for evaluating the run-flat
tire performance are the maximum driving speed and distance,
the riding comfort and the durability.
Fig. 1(a) shows an earliest run-flat tire model composed of the
radial sidewalls, a banded ring, and the shoulder reinforcement,
where the conventional belt layers embedded in the underlying
rubber matrix is completely replaced with a metallic banded
ring [2]. The most significant requirement for this run-flat tire is
that the band should be incorporated directly into the tire as it is
molded, because the tire may be failed when the band is either fit
or bonded to the tread rubber inner surface. Even though this tire
model is capable of running over more than 160 km at zero
inflation pressure, its main drawbacks are the lack of long-term
durability and the unsafety against the dynamic impact loading. A
support ring type run-flat tire shown in Fig. 1(b) was introduced
to resolve the fit and bonding problems of the banded ring, where
a support ring is installed over the outer surface of wheel instead
of the previous tread rubber. The most prominent advantage of
this type is that the modification of the standard pneumatic tire is
easier than the banded ring type. Nevertheless, it still suffers from
several drawbacks in the major driving performances such as the
riding comfort, the rolling over obstacles and the durability.
The sidewall-reinforced run-flat tire shown in Fig. 1(c) has
been extensively considered as an alternative to resolve the
drawbacks of these ring-type reinforcements. The basic motiva-
tion was to increase the sidewall stiffness so as to protect the
sidewall from being flat even at zero internal pressure when
puncture occurs. This type is attractable in various aspects if the
Fig. 2. Illustration of the local h-refinement to maintain the mesh uniformity.
Fig. 3. Discrete-type structure optimization: (a) tread belt and (b) number and path of carcass layers.
sidewall reinforcement rubber, called the sidewall insert rubber,
is appropriately designed, because not only the above-mentioned
drawbacks could be successfully resolved but the manufacturing
cost does not increase so much. In this context, the design of the
most suitable insert rubber becomes a core subject, which could
be achieved by the computer-aided optimization technique.
In the conventional optimum tire design, the change in
geometry coordinates of the initial tire design does not remark-
ably change the finite element mesh. It is because not only the
geometry change is not large but all the finite elements in the
vicinity of the design object like carcass layer move simulta-
neously during the mesh adaptation for the iterative sensitivity
analysis [15,18]. But, in the tire structure optimization in which
the configuration and dimensions of the design object change
significantly as illustrated in Fig. 2, the uniformity of the initial
finite element mesh may be significantly deteriorated. Being non-
uniformity of finite element mesh during the mesh adaptation for
the iterative sensitivity analysis inevitably causes the excessive
fluctuation of the objective function to the optimization iteration
number. As a result, one may encounter the numerical difficulty
in reaching a converged optimum solution, unless the local
h-refinement [14,19,20] is employed to recover the mesh uni-
formity. Note that this kind of the fluctuation is different from the
inherent fluctuation of the objective function which is occurred
owing to the change of design variables in the iterative optimiza-
tion iteration.
Meanwhile, the design variables in the tire design may change
in the discrete manner, which may frequently happen when the
designer tries to generate a new tire model by greatly modifying
the existing one. As depicted in Fig. 3, the belt layer number, the
division number of a belt layer and the number and path of
carcass layers could be representative examples of the discrete-
type design variables. This kind of tire design has never been done
before by the mathematical optimization method, rather it was
made based on either the bench mark test or the parametric
numerical analysis. It is because the gradient of objective func-
tions to the design variables is not mathematically defined, as
mentioned earlier, which became the main motivation that
GA has been introduced to the tire design. Not being confined to
the discrete-type optimization problems, GA would also be
applied to the conventional optimum design in which the design
variable and the objective function vary continuously. Further-
more, the CPU time required for the fitness test of each genome in
the iterative generation evolution can be greatly shortened if the
direct finite element analysis is replaced with the response
surface approximation [21,22], particularly for large-scale opti-
mization problems.
 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70 63

3. Multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm Subject to:

Z Z Z
0
3.1. Formulation of generalized multi-objective optimization Sij ðuÞeij ðvÞ dV ¼ r0 bki dV þ t^ i vi ds ð8Þ
Ok,0 O 0,k
@O0,k
N
problem
g j ðXÞ ¼ X Lj X j r 0, j ¼ 1,. . .,nd ð9Þ
In this section, we consider the generalized multi-objective
optimization problems characterized by different types of discrete
design variables. The types of design variables associated with the g j þ nd ðXÞ ¼ X j X U
j r0, j ¼ 1,. . .,nd ð10Þ
tire reinforcement structure can be classified into the shape, with O , k,0
@Ok,0
and
k
bi
being the initial material domain, the
N
dimension and stiffness of the insert rubber, and a number of design traction boundary region and the body force of the kth tire design
variables can be defined for each design variable type. We denote ng model. Note that Eq. (8) is the total Lagrangian formulation of the
be the number of design variable types and nd be the total number tire static contact problem [16]
of design variables. A design variable vector X consisted of the total A Pareto solution of the problem (7) is to be sought through
of nd design variables can be divided into a number of vectors the outer trade-off iteration loop, and each trade-off iteration step
XI (I¼1,2, ..., ng) of different types of design variables such that k is terminated through the inner genetic evolution process.
All the single-objective functions fi are approximated by ANN,
X ¼ X1  X2      Xng ¼ fX 1 ,X 2 ,. . .,X nd gT ð1Þ n
and all the ideal levels f i are chosen by single-objective optimiza-
Note that ng becomes identical with nd when all the distinct tion utilizing GA. The sensitivity analysis within the inner design
design variable vectors include only one design variable. iteration loop is replaced with the genetic evolution through the
Meanwhile, the objective functions are chosen depending on fitness test.
the goal of tire structure optimization, but those for the current
study are the peak strain energy and the spring rate. Letting no be 3.2. Genetic algorithm (GA)
the number of single-objective functions, a multi-objective func-
tion F(X) is composed of a finite number of single-objective Once an initial population of genomes is generated, a genetic
functions fi(X) (i¼1,2, ..., no) as evolution of the genome population undergoes a series of fitness
FðXÞ ¼ ff 1 ðXÞ,f 2 ðXÞ,. . .,f no ðXÞg ð2Þ test, selection, crossover and mutation [8]. And, the genome
ranked top among all the genomes which are survived through a
subject to a set of inequality constraints given by number of genetic evolutions is taken as a best one. In the
engineering optimization problem using GA, each design model is
g j ðXÞ ¼ X Lj X j r 0 and g j þ nd ðXÞ ¼ X j X U
j r0, j ¼ 1, . . ., nd ð3Þ
defined as a genome and the top-ranked genome becomes an
with X Lj and X U optimum design model.
j being the lower and upper bounds of Xj.
Hereafter, we denote the quantities (U)k be those at trade-off
iteration stage k in an iterative multi-objective optimization 3.2.1. Binary string representation
process. Referring to the satisficing trade-off method (STOM) by In order to apply GA to an engineering optimization problem,
Nakayama and Furukawa [17] and Cho et al. [15], we employ the each design model X i ¼ fX i1 , X i2 , . . ., X ind g under consideration should
concept of ideal levels and aspiration levels of each single- be expressed by the total of mnd bits. Here, mndAR þ is determined
objective function fi(X) in order to define a weighted multi- from the relation of 2mnd ZN case case
TOT with N TOT calculated by
objective function Fk(X) at trade-off iteration stage k
Ncase case
TOT ¼ N 1  Ncase
2  UUU  Ncase
nd ð11Þ
k
k
fwki 9f i f i ðXÞ9g, wki ¼ 1=9f i f^ i 9
n n
F ðXÞ ¼ max ð4Þ where Ncase
i is denoted as the case number of ith design variable.
1 r i r no
For the current study, we represent the ith design model (i.e. genome)
n
For reference, the ideal levels f i indicate the maximum values Gi ð ¼ X ibin Þ in the following binary form:
which fi are expected to be reached, while the aspiration levels f^ i
Gi ¼ b1 b2 . . .bm1 . . .bmðj1Þ . . .bmj . . .bmnd , i ¼ 1,2, :::, N pop ð12Þ
are the desired values to be improved from the current value.
In general, the former levels are determined by a single-objective where bi are either 1 or 0 and bmðj1Þ . . .bmj stands for the jth design
optimization while the latter levels are set by the designer. The variable Xj. Then, an initial population Y0G composed of Npop genomes
weighting factors wi are to be automatically determined once can be defined as
these two levels are given.
Next, the weighted multi-objective function Fk(X) subject to Y0G ¼ fG0i : i ¼ 1,2, . . ., N pop g ð13Þ
the constraints defined in Eq. (3) is transformed to an uncon- On the other hand, the decoding of a binary string Gi in Eq. (12)
strained objective function Ak(X,rp) by introducing a penalty to transform Gi to a corresponding engineering design model
parameter rp such that X i ¼ fX i1 , X i2 ,:::, X ind g is carried out string-interval-wisely. For
X
nc example, when a string interval bmðj1Þ . . .bmj is mapped into a
Ak ðX, r p Þ ¼ F k ðXÞ þ r p max½0, ckj g j ðXÞ2 ð5Þ decimal number, then this decimal number indicates the order of
j¼1
Xj in Ncase
j .
In which the factors ci for scaling the magnitudes of each
constraint with respect to one of the weighted multi-objective 3.2.2. Fitness test and selection
function F(X) are calculated through The initial population of genomes is generated randomly so
that the selection of genomes having high fitness is needed to
ckj ¼ 9F k ðXÞ9=9g j ðXÞ9 ð6Þ seek a best genome in the minimum number of genetic evolu-
Then, the formulation of generalized multi-objective optimi- tions. The selection process is made based on the fitness evalua-
zation problem is written in the following form: tion of each genome in the population, and it prepares parents to
reproduce offsprings through crossover and mutation operations.
Both the fitness test and selection operations are carried out after
Minimize Ak ðX, r p Þ ð7Þ
X an initial genome population is generated and after every
64 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70

mutation operation in the genetic evolution process. Several (1rirNpop) are selected. Note that the total number of genomes
methods such as roulette-wheel, tournament, ranking and sharing selected is identical to the population size Npop but some of genomes
have been introduced for selecting genomes [23], but roulette- in the initial population may be either selected more than once or
wheel selection method represented in Fig. 4 is adopted for the not selected at all.
current study. As a convergence criterion to terminate the genetic evolution,
The fitness of each genome Gi at the ‘th genetic evolution the maximum repetition times N con GA of successive generations
stage is evaluated using the fitness function defined by with the best fitness value unchanged. Meanwhile, at the initial
stage the genetic evolution is forced to iterate up to the preset
X
nc
Ak, ‘ k, ‘
i ðX, r p Þ ¼ F i ðXÞ þ r p max ½0, ck,
j
‘
g j ðXÞ2 , ‘ ¼ 1,2, ::: ð14Þ minimum generation number NfGA or
without the fitness test in
j¼1 order not to obtain any pre-converged unsatisfactory solution.

where the superscript k stands for the iteration number of trade-

off between the single-objective functions fi(X). Then, the prob- 3.2.3. Crossover and mutation
‘
ability pk,
i
A ð0,1Þ that the ith genome in the population can be Once the parent genomes are prepared through the fitness test
selected is calculated according to and selection, offspring genomes are reproduced through a series
Npop
of crossover and mutation. Crossover and mutation are performed
‘
Ak, ‘
X ‘ in order to extend the search space of genomes, which may
pk,
i ¼
‘ i
‘
, Ak,
TOT ¼ Ak,
i ð15Þ
Ak,
TOT i¼1 produce more excellent offspring genomes with higher fitness. In
proportion to the crossover and mutation ratios, the search space
And, referring to Fig. 4, the relative fitness space in a roulette-
becomes larger but the convergence speed becomes lower, so the
wheel which is allotted for the ith genome is calculated by the
‘ crossover and mutation ratios are usually set by 80–95% and 0.1–
accumulated probabilities qk, defined by
i 1.0%, respectively. A number of crossover and mutation operators
X
i have been introduced so far, and those show the inherent merits
‘ ‘
qk,
i ¼ pk,
m ð16Þ and demerits [24–27]. For the current study, we employ the one-
m¼1
point crossover operator and a classical mutation operator.
At the final stage, the total Npop normalized random numbers Referring to Fig. 5(a), in the one-point crossover the normalized
rA[0,1] are generated and the genomes Gi satisfying qi 1 rrrqi random numbers are assigned to each genome in the population,
and the genomes having the random numbers smaller than the
preset crossover ratio are chosen. The crossover operation is made
only if the number of genomes chosen is greater than one, and even
in such a case, additional selection step should be accompanied
when the number of genomes chosen is odd in order to exclude one
genome. To do this, the newly generated random numbers are
assigned to each genome chosen and a genome having the lowest
random number is excluded. After that, the normalized random
numbers are generated once again and assigned to each genome, the
selected genomes are to be paired for crossover are determined by
the ascending sort of random numbers.
Meanwhile, referring to Fig. 5(b) the normalized random
numbers are generated to each bit in every genome in the
population for the mutation operation. And, the bits having the
random numbers less than the preset mutation ratio are reversed,
0 to 1 or 1 to 0, respectively.

3.3. Generalized MOGA optimization method

Flowchart of a generalized multi-objective genetic algorithm

Fig. 4. Roulette-wheel of fitness for a population with Npop genomes. (MOGA) optimization method is represented in Fig. 6, where

Fig. 5. Illustration: (a) one-point crossover with the crossover ratio 0.8 and (b) mutation with the mutation ratio 0.04.
 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70
Fig. 6. Flowchart of a generalized MOGA optimization.
trade-off, genetic algorithm and ANN are combined. This algo-
rithm is basically composed of two main iteration loops, outer
loop for the trade-off between single-objective functions and
inner loop for the genetic evolution of genomes. Individual
single-objective functions fi(X) approximated by ANN are used
for the single-objective optimization and the fitness test, and the
single- and multi-objective optimizations are carried out by GA.
The inner loop terminates when the preset convergence criterion
is satisfied, while the outer loop is terminated by the designer’s
own judgment.
The MOGA program starts with the initial design variables X0
and a penalty parameter rp after each single-objective function is
approximated by ANN. Next, the ideal levels for each single-
objective functions are chosen with the help of the single-
objective optimization and the initial aspiration levels are set by
the designer. With the initial setting of the aspiration levels f^ i , an
optimum solution is sought through the iterative genetic evolu-
tion composed of fitness test, selection, crossover and mutation.
The MOGA program completely terminates when the optimum
solution X k, ‘ satisfying the convergence criterion set for the inner
GA iteration loop is judged to be satisfactory. Otherwise, the outer
trade-off iteration repeats by adjusting the aspiration levels. The
reader may refer to Nakayama and Furukawa [17] for more details
on the iterative trade-off process for the multi-objective optimi-
zation problems.
In order to approximate the responses of engineering pro-
blems, several different meta-models (also called surrogate mod-
els or approximate models) such as ANN, the response surface
model (RSM) and the kriging model are widely used. The RSM is
expressed in terms of low-order polynomials with the coefficients
determined by the least-square method, and the choice of the
best suitable model is made upon the ANOVA regression analysis.
65
The main advantages of this model are the simplicity and
effectiveness, but it suffers from the severe oscillations and
requires too many support points when higher-order polynomials
are employed, which limits its use for approximating the non-
linear response of complex engineering problems [28,29]. Mean-
while, ANN [30] is constructed through a number of iterations of
forward computing and backward learning for determining the
appropriate inter-layer connection weights, which requires much
computation time as well as many sampling points. But, thanks to
the inherent feature of neural networks, it provides the good
accuracy in approximating the global and nonlinear response of
complex engineering problems [31]. More recently, kriging mod-
els formulated as a combination of a linear regression model and
departure are widely used for a variety of engineering applica-
tions [32]. Sample points in this model are interpolated with the
Gaussian random function, and it approximates the value of the
unknown point using stochastic processes. This model is known
to have the sufficient flexibility to approximate the nonlinear
response, but the flexibility tends to increase the computation
cost and the complexity in use [32,33].
Meanwhile, most of the computation time in constructing a
meta-model with the experimental data obtained by the finite
element analysis is spent for the finite element analyses, not for
creating the meta-model itself. In this regard, we use the neural
networks-based meta-model which provides the good accuracy in
predicting the global and nonlinear response. Referring to our
previous paper [16], an ANN with two hidden layers and the
sigmoid transfer function f(x)¼1/(1þe  x) is employed. And the
design of experiments (DOE) is prepared by an orthogonal array
m
L3m ð3ð3 1Þ=2 Þ, where the level of design variables is set by three.
TAR
The target output data f i of individual single-objective func-
tions to the input design variables X INP in DOE are prepared by the
66 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70

finite element analysis. The weighting factors wij connecting modulus E, the width B and height H of three rectangle grooves
input, hidden and output layers are iteratively adjusted through which produce the minimum standard deviation of the contact
a series of the forward computing and the backward learning. The pressure distribution between the structure and the ground. The
iteration for determining the connecting weights terminates overall size of the structure is similar to one of automobile tire
OUT
when the output signal f i satisfy the convergence criterion model 205/60R15, and the internal pressure pi and the vertical
defined by load FY are set by 70 kPa and 5 N. The finite element mesh is
OUT TAR TAR generated with the total of 4416 4-node elements and Poisson’s
max9f i,s f i,s 9=9f i,s 9r eANN , i ¼ 1,2, :::, no, s ¼ 1,2, :::,NDOE
s,i ratio n is set by 0.49, respectively.
ð17Þ Three design variables are discretized as follows: E¼ 5.895,
6.550 and 7.205 MPa, B ¼4, 5, 6 and 7 mm, and H¼4, 5, 6 and
where no and NDOE denote the number of individual single-objective
7 mm, respectively, in order to construct the discrete structure
functions fi(X) and the experiment cases in DOE, respectively.
models. Then, the total number of cases becomes NcaseTOT ¼ 3  4 
4 ¼ 48 and each genome should be represented by a binary string
4. Numerical experiments composed of 6 bits from Eq. (12) in Section 3. The simulation
parameters taken for GA are as follows: Npop of 4, the crossover
According to the mathematical formulae described in Section 3, ratio of 0.8, the mutation ratio of 0.08, NfGAor
of 0, and N con
GA of 5,
a test MOGA program is coded in Fortran. Before applying the test respectively.
MOGA program to the optimum design of run-flat tire insert The nodal contact pressures pk are taken along the bottom
rubber, the GA-based optimization module is firstly tested with a contact line of structure. Letting p and Ns be the mean contact
2-D simple tire-like linear elastic structure shown in Fig. 7. The pressure and the number of sampling points (i.e., the nodes on the
goal of this example is to determine the optimum Young’s contact line), the standard deviation S‘i and the fitness F ‘i ðXÞ of the
ith genome at the ‘th genetic evolution are calculated by
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u Ns
uX
S‘i ¼ t ðpk pÞ2 =Ns , F ‘i ðXÞ ¼ 35S‘i  107 ð18Þ
k¼1

with Ns being the total number of sampling points. The fitness of

each genome is evaluated directly by the finite element analysis
because the problem size is not big. Since the standard deviations
S‘i are found to be far less than 3.5  10  6 GPa according to the
preliminary finite element analyses of discrete structure models,
the fitness F ‘i ðXÞ is defined as given in Eq. (18).
The genetic evolution terminates in 14 generations with the
best fitness value F(X) ¼15.962 at the optimum model Xopt ¼
{E¼6.550 MPa, B ¼H¼4 mm}, while worst suitable models is
found to be Xworst ¼{E¼5.895 MPa, B ¼5 mm, H¼ 6 mm} with
the fitness value F(X) ¼1.017. The contact pressure distributions
of the best and worst suitable models are compared in Fig. 8,
where the best mode shows much more equalized contact
pressure distribution than the worst model. For reference, the
standard deviations of the best and worst suitable models are
Fig. 7. A 2-D simple numerical example.
1.904  10  6 and 3.398  10  6 GPa, respectively.

Fig. 8. Distributions of contact pressure: (a) best model Xopt and (b) worst model Xworst.
 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70
We next apply the MOGA program to enhance the riding
comfort and the durability of a run-flat tire model 225/50R16
shown in Fig. 9(a). Referring to Fig. 9(b), both the peak strain
energy of the insert rubber (also, called the reinforcement rubber)
and the spring rate should be simultaneously minimized for both
performances. The tire spring rate is defined by the secant modulus
of the vertical load-vertical deflection curve. This tire model is
composed of two tread belt layers, double carcass layers and two
capply layers. The moduli of tread rubber, insert rubber and apex are
837 psi, 1895 psi and 1720 psi, respectively, and the structural
composition and material properties of other major components
are given in Table A1 in Appendix. The 3-D static contact analyses
required to learn ANN models for the peak strain energy and the
spring rate are carried out by ABAQUS/Standard [34].
The 3-D finite element model is constructed by considering
only the main grooves and the tire is discretized with the total of
36,768C3D6H and C3D8H elements in ABAQUS. Two tread belt
layers and double carcass layers embedded in the underlying
rubber matrix are modeled using rebar elements, and steel cords
and underlying rubber matrix in the bead region are modeled as
the homogenized solid elements based on the linear rule of
mixture [35]. The vertical load FY of 536 kgf is applied to the axis
of the tire model which is inflated up to the internal pressure pi of
30 psi, and the friction coefficient m between the tire and the
ground is set by 1.0. The tire axis and the outer bead nodes which
are in contact with the tire rim are connected using a number of
massless rigid elements. It should be noted that the spring rate is
obtained with pi of 30 psi but the peak strain energy with pi of
0 psi because the riding comfort is measured before puncture
while the durability after puncture [2,3].
The 2-D material composition of the model tire in the sidewall
region is shown in Fig. 10, where the increments of the insert
rubber and apex moduli and three gages characterizing the insert
shape are chosen as the design variables. These two types of
design variables, the increments of moduli X1 and the increments
of gages X2, constitute a design variable vector X¼X1X2 which is
consisted of the total of five design variables: nd¼3þ2¼5. Two
types of design variables are constrained to satisfy  1 mmrX1 r
þ1 mm and 75%rX2 r125%. Other constraints specified to the
problem are that the angle and width of two tread belt layers should
be between 211 and 271 and between  10 mm and þ 10 mm,
respectively. Note that the initial dimensions of three gages are as
follows: OADD gage¼19 mm, L gage¼17 mm and HUMP gage¼
23 mm, respectively.
The case numbers of each design variable become Ncase 1 ¼
Ncase
2 ¼ N case
3 ¼ 201 and Ncase
4 ¼ Ncase
5 ¼ 101 when two types of
Fig. 9. Optimization problem: (a) finite element mesh and (b) peak strain energy and spring rate.
67
design variables are discretized by 0.01 mm and 0.51, respectively.
Then, it is found, from Eq. (12) in Section 3, that each genome
should be represented by a binary string composed of 37 bits.
Meanwhile, ANNs for two single-objective functions fi(X) are
approximated using the L27(35) orthogonal arrays and the con-
vergence tolerance eANN of 0.02, for which three levels of two
types of design variables are set by ( 1 mm, 0, þ1 mm) and
(75%, 100%, 125%), respectively. The accuracy of two ANN models
has been justified from the comparison between the direct finite
element analysis and the ANN prediction such that the maximum
relative differences of the peak strain energy and the spring rate
are 4.79% and 0.66%, respectively. The penalty parameter rp is set
by 1.0 and the ideal levels for the peak strain energy and the spring
rate which were determined by the single-objective optimization
using GA are 34.7099 psi and 33.5652 kgf/mm, respectively.
In order to examine the criterion of convergence of GA, the
numbers of generation are investigated with respect to the
population size Npop, the maximum repetition times N con GA of
successive generations and the initial forced generation number
NfGA
or
. The crossover and mutation ratios set by 0.4 and 0.005, and
the aspiration levels of the peak strain energy and the spring rate
are set by 56 psi and 35, respectively. Fig. 11(a) and (b) show the
plots of the number of generations versus Npop for three different
f or
Ncon
GA ’s and N GA ’s respectively, where each experimental value
represents the mean value of 10 generation numbers which are
obtained by 10 sequentially random tests.
First of all, it is observed that the number of generations as a
whole shows the gradual increase with the population size,
f or
regardless of Ncon con
GA and N GA . In case of N GA , the plots show the
Fig. 10. Design variables for the optimum structure design of run-flat tire.
68 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70
Fig. 11. Number of generations versus the population size: (a) to the maximum repetition times N con
generation number N fGA
or
(N con
GA ¼ 6).
Fig. 12. Pareto curve of the peak strain energy and the spring rate.
fluctuation at large population sizes and the increase and fluctua-
tion of generation number with the population size become
f or
higher in proportion to Ncon GA . Meanwhile, in proportion to N GA ,
the number of generations apparently increases but the number
of net generations (i.e., the number of generations minus N fGA or
) insert rubber modulus and OADD and L gages and vice versa for
becomes smaller. In particular, the plot obtained without the
initial forced iteration without the fitness test exhibits the severe
fluctuation, differing from other two plots obtained with the
initial forced iteration.
Based upon the previous investigation of the criterion of
convergence, the simulation parameters taken for the optimum
design of insert rubber of run-flat tire are as follows: Npop of 40,
the crossover ratio of 0.4, the mutation ratio of 0.005, NfGA or
of 100,
f or
and N con
GA of 7, respectively. The choice of N GA equal to 40 is made
from the fact that two plots with NfGA or
¼ 40 and 100 do not show
the significant difference in the number of net generations and
the fluctuation of plot. Meanwhile, Ncon GA is set by 7 in order to
obtain the fitness value as high as possible, and the population
size is determined so as to suppress the severe fluctuation. It was
also observed through the preliminary experiment that the
number of generations required to reach the convergence is
influenced by the ideal and aspiration levels as well as the
crossover and mutation ratios, but in it for the current optimum
insert rubber design was within the range between 102 and 197.
In order to obtain a Pareto curve shown in Fig. 12, the
aspiration levels of two single-objective functions, the peak strain
energy and the spring rate, are adjusted simultaneously in the
opposite directions to each other; from the ideal level to the
f or
GA of successive generations (N GA ¼ 40) and (b) to the initial forced
current value for the peak strain energy and vice versa for the
spring rate.
Referring to Fig. 12, the peak strain energy and the spring rate
of the initial run-flat tire design are 37.01 psi and 54.31 kgf/mm
and the Pareto solutions enclosed by a dotted circle provide the
enhanced riding comfort and durability. The detailed numerical
values of the optimum designs and each single-objective func-
tions for 22 different aspiration adjustment cases are given in
Table A2 in Appendix. It is observed from the detailed optimiza-
tion results that the both single-objective functions exhibit the
completely reverse variation to each other to the change of the
weighting factors wi. The Pareto solutions #13–#17 among 22
Pareto solutions provide the peak strain energies and the spring
rates smaller than those of the initial run-flat tire design. The
insert rubber modulus and OADD and L gages show the remark-
able influence on the peak strain energy and the spring rate, while
the effects of the apex rubber modulus and HUMP gage are
negligible such that their optimum values are lower-bounded.
Among five design variables the insert rubber modulus and OADD
gage shows the highest influence on the variation of both single-
objective functions. Meanwhile, it is observed that the peak strain
energy generally decreases in proportion to the increase of the
the spring rate, as shown in Fig. 13.
The choice of the final optimum design among the five Pareto
solutions #13–#17 is totally dependent on the designer’s decision
making. Even though the aspiration level adjustment in the
flowchart shown in Fig. 6 was made rather uniformly in the
current study to investigate the Pareto curve, a Pareto solution
like #14 would be obtained when one adjusts the aspiration
levels of individual single-objective functions according to one’s
own subjective judgment.
In order to evaluate the reliability of the final optimum
solutions obtained by ANN, a Pareto run-flat tire design #14 is
also directly analyzed by the finite element analysis. The compar-
ison of the peak strain energies and the spring rates between the
ANN model and the direct FEM analysis is given in Table 1, from
which the reliability of the proposed MOGA optimization method
is justified such that the maximum relative error is less than 0.1%.
Fig. 14(a) and (b) compares the distributions of the peak strain
energy within the sidewall and the spring rates between the
initial design and Pareto design #14. Note that this comparison
was made by the direct finite element analyses.
It has been confirmed through the two illustrative numerical
examples that the proposed MOGA optimization method can suc-
cessfully find Pareto solutions for the multi-objective optimization
 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70 69

Fig. 13. Sensitivity of the spring rate: (a) to the gages and (b) to the rubber moduli.

Table 1
The verification of Pareto solution #14 by the direct finite element analysis.

Prediction Performances Optimum design variables

method
Peak strain energy (psi) Spring rate (kgf/mm) Gage increments (mm) Modulus increments (%)

ANN 51.4447 36.2189 OADD L HUMP Insert Apex

FEM 51.4 (þ0.09) 35.95 (þ 0.07)  1.0  1.0  1.0 118.5 75

Fig. 14. Comparison between the initial design and Pareto solution #14: (a) the peak strain energy and (b) the spring rate.

problems with the discrete-type design variables. Furthermore, it is
convinced that this generalized multi-objective optimization method
could be applied to any kind of discrete-type multi-objective
optimization problem which may be encountered in a variety of
engineering applications without a loss of generality.
5. Conclusion
A generalized multi-objective optimization method making use
of GA, called the MOGA optimization method, has been introduced
for the multi-objective optimization problems characterized by the
discrete-type design variables. A genetic algorithm was developed by
combining the Roulette-wheel selection, the one-point crossover and
the classical mutation operators based on the normalized random
numbers. Two-hidden layer ANNs were used to approximate indivi-
dual single-objective functions with the help of the orthogonal
arrays, and the ideal levels of each single-objective functions were
determined by the single-objective optimization using GA.
The multi-objective optimum design of the shape and stiffness
of the sidewall insert rubber and the apex stiffness of run-flat tire
was carried out, in order to improve the riding comfort and
durability. Each continuous design variable was discretized into a
finite number of discrete values and the resulting discrete-type
tire design models were coded into binary strings. In order to rule
out the possibility of any pre-matured Pareto solution at initial
iteration stages, the genetic evolution was forced to iterate up to
the preset minimum iteration number without the fitness test.
The convergence of the genetic evolution was judged by the
preset maximum repetition times of successive generations with
the best fitness unchanged.
Through the numerical experiment, it has been verified that
the proposed MOGA optimization method successfully seeks
Pareto solutions for all the combinations of aspiration levels.
As well, the reliability of the optimum solution has been justified
such that the relative error of the single-objective functions
approximated by ANN with respect to the direct finite element
analysis of the Pareto tire design is less than 1%.
70 J.R. Cho et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 52 (2012) 60–70

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