Material design optimization for a sport shoe sole by evolutionary computation and FEM analysis

This paper describes the material design optimization for a sport shoe sole by the evolutionary computation coupled with the eigenmode analysis based on finite element method. In the present evolutionary computation, a genetic algorithm assisted by the Kriging response surface model was used for global and efficient optimization. The present study implemented two optimization cases based on equivalent design problem formulations: single-objective constrained problem and multi-objective non-constrained problem. The present optimization provided optimal sole material properties, in which an elastic modulus should be reduced in rear→mid→front-center foot domains sequentially as the sole weight becomes lighter. In addition, a comparison of the results between the two cases showed a suggestion about constraint handling for faster convergence in the sole design optimization by evolutionary computation.