11th Asian Pacific Conference on Shell and Spatial Structures-APCS2015

May 14-16, 2015 Xi’an, China

Using micro Genetic Algorithm to optimize cable net structures

Son THAIab, Jaehong LEE*,
Nam-Il KIMa

*Architectural Engineering, Sejong University

98 Kunja Dong, Kwangjin Ku, Seoul 143-747, S. Korea
jhlee@sejong.ac.kr
a
Architectural Engineering, Sejong University
b
Architectural Engineering, Sejong University

Abstract
A finite element program analyzing the nonlinear behavior of the cable net structure combined with the micro
Genetic Algorithm (μGA) to produce a generalize procedure to optimize the cable net structure. The optimiza-
tion problems consider the total volume of the cable net structures as the objective functions, whereas, the allow-
able stress and the limited displacement are taken into account as the conditional constants. The effects of these
conditional constant on the trend of optimal volumes are also investigated. The application of the optimization
procedure is demonstrate by an example of the plane cable net.
Keywords: Cable net structure, Nonlinear analysis, Micro Genetic Algorithm.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, the applications of cable structures are more widespread, especially in civil engineering, aerospace
structures. Cables have distinctive characteristics in comparison to other kinds of structures, they are light
weight, high degree of flexibility but have a high strength of axial stiffness, therefore, cable structures are em-
ployed frequently in large spaces as well as long span structure, namely cable-supported bridge, cable-stayed
bridge, roofs of stadium etc. The drawback of cable structures is that they have a very weak initial stiffness and
large displacement, therefore, nonlinear analysis are required to deal with the problems of cable structures.
Although the nonlinear characteristic makes the analyzing of the behavior of cable structures become more diffi-
cult and consume a lot of time and calculation effort, some researchers have involved in dealing with the optimi-
zation problem related to cable structures. Huang [3] achieved the results in minimizing the weight for an elastic
cable, with various cross-sectional areas in an isolated cable when both ends are at the same level. Thevendran
and Wang[10] used the calculus of variations to minimize the weight of a single cable with different level of end
points. The optimal pretensioned forces are found by using the Nelder and Mead Simplex method in the research
of Swaddiwudhipong et al. [8]. Delleri and Sadaccini [2] discovered the importance of the fully stressed design
in the optimization process. The effects of self-weight, concentrated load and the distribution of loads on the
optimal shape as well as the cross-sectional areas of an isolated cable are studied by Wang et al. [11].
It is obviously to recognized that the general optimization problems of cable structure are to find the optimal
value of cross-sectional areas and the pretensioned forces, in which, the pretension forces are applied to the
structures to produce the initial stiffness of the structures. In the previous optimization researches, the authors
used the analytical approaches to obtain the optimal results, hence, each optimization method could be applied to
a specific problem or a certain kind of cable structure as well. The analytical approach employing mathematical
calculations needs a lot of effort to handle with the nonlinear problems and could be applied to a simple model of
cable structures. To deal with the more complicated optimization problems, it is necessary to find another ap-
proach, which could generate a generalized procedure and reduce the calculation effort. In this research, the pro-
posed approach to deal with optimization problem is utilizing the searching technique.
In recent times in computer science, there are a lot of searching techniques have been developed and put to use to
seek solutions with specified properties among the collections of possible results. One of the most popular algo-
rithm which have been built up and applied widely in various fields of science is Genetic Algorithm (GA) [12].
GA is one of the Evolution Algorithm, which could generate the solution by itself with the techniques are based
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on the natural evolution. Up to now, the precision and the capability of have been validated by a huge number of
research.
In this research, a generalized procedure to optimize the total volume of cable net structures are proposed. The
optimization procedure is developed by combining a finite element program, which uses isoparametric cable
elements to analyze the nonlinear behavior of the cable structure, and the innovated version GA: micro Genetic
Algorithm (µGA). Two conditional constants are considered simultaneously are the limited displacement Δlimit
and the allowable stress σa. The optimal results are also observed when the conditional constants are changed to
investigate how these constants affect the results of optimal volumes of cable net structures.

2. Design optimization of cable net structure

2.1. Micro Genetic Algorithm

Based on the Darwins theory of revolution, the process of GA includes techniques that inspired by the natural
evolution. Like other searching techniques, the task of GA is to find the optimal item among a collection of pos-
sible results. It can be summarized that the process of GA is the revolution of the population through genera-
tions, the best result (individual) with specified properties found after a certain number of generation is the opti-
mal results. µGA is the new modified version of GA, this algorithm was proposed by Krishnakumar [5]. The
difference between µGA and original GA is that µGA keep the best potential result if the best individual (elite
individual) in the new generation is not good as the best in the previous generation. This technique helps the al-
gorithm have faster convergence and avoid the fluctuation. The details about the techniques of µGA used in this
research are illustrated in Fig. 3.
The first process of µGA is initializing the first generation. In this first stage, n (number of population) individu-
als are created arbitrarily, each individual corresponds a possible solution of the optimization problem. An indi-
vidual is represented as a chromosome, which is encoded into binary strings. The length of a chromosome is
defined by the numbers of design variables (gens) and the total number of the possibilities, which is specified by
the range of the optimal solution values. All individual of the generation are evaluated and ranked in the order of
fitted ability. The evaluation and rank process are carried out by the fitness function, which would be character-
ized in the next section.
After generating the first generation and sorting the fitness ability of individuals, µGA couple the best individual
s to the others to create the new generation through the selection process. The reproduction activity mimicking
the natural process includes the crossover, mutation procedures. µGA once again call the evaluation and rank
process to obtain better individuals if possible, otherwise, the elite is kept through the next generation. The pro-
cesses of selection, crossover and mutation are repeated until the convergence is derived or the maximum num-
ber of generations is reached. The illustration of the crossover and mutation processes are shown in Fig. 1 and
Fig. 2.

Figure 1: Diagram of an arbitrary crossover process in GA [12].

Figure 2: Shematic represent of mutation process in GA [12].

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Figure 3: The flow chart of the µGA procedure.

2.2. Fitness function

In this research, the optimal volume of cable structure is expressed as the objective function with two kinds of
design variable taken into account are the cross-sectional areas A and the pretensioned force F, hence, the opti-
mization problem can be defined as
n
 
Min V  Ai , Fi    Ai li  (1)
 1 
subjected to two conditional functions

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i
fi1 ( Ai , Fi )   1  0; i  1,..., ne
 ia
(2)
j
f j2 ( Ai , Fi )   1  0; i  1,..., ne ; j  1,..., nj
 limit
and two side constraints of design variable
Amin  Ai  Amax
Fmin  Fi  Fmax (3)
i  1,..., ne
where:
- Ai, Fi , li are the crossectional area, pretensioned force and the deformed length of the i-th element
respectively.
- ne and nj are the total number of cable elements and internal nodes of the cable structure.
- σi and σia are the tensile stress and the allowable stress of the element i-th. Δj and Δlimit are the dis-
placement of node j-th in z-direction and the limited displacement of all nodes of the cable structure. These ana-
lyzed results are derived by an finite element program utilizing isoparametric cable elements [6].
- The values of Amin, Amax, Fmin, and Fmax in equation 3 determine the range of the design variable or the
searching domains. These values with two increments ΔF and ΔA determine the length of the chromosomes in
µGA procedure.
As mentioned ealier in the previous section, µGA uses fitness function to evaluate and sort individuals in fitness
ability order. The fitness function F(Ai ,Fi ) can be expressed as:


F  Ai , Fi   N 0  V  Ai , Fi     g1  Ai , Fi   g 2  Ai , Fi   (4)
in which
- N0 and η are parameter whose values are chosen flexibility in order to make the value of fitness func-
tion is always positive and reasonable, so that, ranking process can be implemented more quickly and accurately.
- g1(Ai,Fi ) and g2(Ai,Fi ) are the penalty function, which are expressed as follow:
ne
g1  Ai , Fi    ( f i1 ) 2 ; i  1,..., ne
i 1
1
0, if f  0
i
f i1   1 1
 f i , if f i  0
nj (5)
g2  Ai , Fi    ( f j2 ) 2 ; i  1,..., ne ; j  1,..., nj
j 1
2
0,if f  0j
f j2   2 2
 f j ,if f j  0
3. Numerical example of plane cable net

The plane cable net shown in Fig. 4 is a simple tensile strucuture. This model of cable structure was previously
analyzed by the Jayaraman and Knudson [4] and Densai et al. [2] with curved cable elements. Recently, Thai and
Kim [9] analyzed this cable structure by using the catenary elements. The properties of the plane cable net are
shown in the Table. 1.
Symbol Definition Data
A Cross-sectional area 146.45 mm2
E Elastic modulus 82,737 MPa
σy Yeild stress 420 MPa

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Fi Pretensioned force of inclined element 23.687 kN

Fh Pretensioned force of horizontal element 24.283 kN
P Vertical load at internal nodes 35.586 kN
Table 2: Properties of plane cable net.

Figure 4: Plane cable net (f =9.144m).

Table. 2 shows the displacement results of the plane cable net derived by the nonlinear analytical program of the
current work. It can be seen that the derived results of the proposed finite element program using 2-node isopar-
ametric cable element have a strong agreement with the previous researches.

Resercher Displacement of node 4 (mm)

x-direction y-direction z-direction
Jayaraman and Knudson[4] -36.92 -40.20 -446.32
Densai et al[2] -40.17 -40.17 -446.11
Thai and Kim[9] -40.13 -40.43 -446.50
Present work -40.16 -40.16 -445.95
Table 2: Comparison of vertical displacement of plane cable net.

The optimization problem of the plane cable structure includes three major cases corresponding to different cases
of number of design variable. The detail information about each optimization case are expressed in Table 3. In
the first case, a unique cross-sectional A area of all cable segments is considered as the design variable, whereas
in the second and in the third case, pretensioned forces are also taken into account, all cable elements have the
same pretensioned force F in case 2 and in case 3, the pretenioned force in inclined elements Fi is intended to
differ the pretensioned force in horizontal elements Fh to observe the difference of the results. There are 3 val-
ues of stresses and displacement conditional constants are employed to study. All conditional parameters of the
optimization problems are shown in Table

Constant
Allowable stress
Limited displacement
Cross-sectional Area
Condition
σa = 200, 410, 600 MPa
∆limit = 0.2, 0.45, 0.7 m
1 mm ≤ A ≤ 500 mm2, ∆A = 1 mm2
2

Pretensioned force 1 kN ≤ F ≤ 500 mm2 , ∆F = 1 kN

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Table 3: Conditional parameters.

In this example, there is a unique cross-sectional area for all the cable elements in all cases, therefore, the cross-
sectional areas shown in Table. 4 are considered as the optimal results instead of the total volume. The number
of population size and the maximum generation for each run by µGA of this example are 50 and 200, respective-
ly.

σa Δlimit A A+F A + Fi + Fh
200 0.45 A= 303 A= 299 A= 299
F= 4.88 Fi = 5.26
Fh = 4.13
410 0.20 A= 347 A= 149 A= 148
F= 49.99 Fi = 55.24
Fh = 22.89
410 0.45 A= 145 A= 145 A= 145
F= 24.68 Fi = 34.63
Fh = 13.65
410 0.70 A= 145 A= 142 A= 142
F= 10.35 Fi = 12.51
Fh = 6.05
600 0.45 A= 145 A= 99 A= 99
F= 36.87 Fi = 50.59
Fh = 9.36
Table 4: The optimal cross-sectional areas A (mm2) and pretensioned forces F (kN).

Fig. 5 displaces the change of optimal cross-sectional areas corresponding to three major cases when the value of
allowable stress σa = 410MPa and the limited displacement values Δlimit are 0.2m, 0.45m and 0.7m respectively,
whereas, in Fig. 6, there are differences in the values of the optimal cross-sectional areas with respect to the val-
ue of the limited displacement Δlimit is 0.45m and the allowable stress value σa is varied from 200MPa to 410MPa
and 600MPa. Compare to the properties of the plane cable net in the analysis problem, there is a good agree-
ment between the optimal result (A =145mm2) and the original data (A =146.45 mm2) in case the conditional
constants are taken approximately from the results of analysis problem (σa = 410MPa, Δlimit =0.45m). This proves
the accuracy of the proposed optimization procedure.

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Figure 5: The changes of optimal cross-sectional areas when σa = 410MPa and Δlimit = 0.2m, 0.45m and 0.7m
respectively.

Figure 6: The changes of optimal cross-sectional areas when Δlimit = 0.45MPa and σa = 200MPa, 410Mpa and
600MPa respectively.

It is clearly to notice from the Table 4, Fig. 5 and Fig.6 that better results are always obtained when the preten-
sioned forces are taken into account as design variables. Moreover, when the value of limited displacement con-
stant is relatively small or the value of the allowable stress is relatively large, there are significant differences in
the result between the cases having the pretensioned forces as design variables and the case in which only cross-
sectional area is the design variable. It can be concluded that pretensioned forces have the important impact on
the problem dealing with the optimization of the cable structures.

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Acknowledgement
The support of the research reported here by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research
Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
(2012R1A2A1A01007405) is gratefully acknowledged.

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