International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 36-40, Jul. 2011.

Design of Highway Construction Mixing Materials Ratio Based on Genetic Algorithm

Li-ping Li, Guang-li Xu, & Xiao-li Lu
Manuscript
Received: 8, July, 2011 Revised: 21,July, 2011 Accepted: 30,July, 2011 Published: 10,August,2011

Keywords
genetic algorithm; highway construction; mixing material ratio

Abstract The manual work or Excel based material mixing ratio method has low computer application level and lays high computer capacity on design construction workers. It is difficult to obtain the most optimal technical and economic program from a number of optional programs. The paper built mathematical model of materials mixing ratio based on genetic algorithm and identified constraint conditions. Data preprocessing was performed according to the constructed model. Based on specific circus of material mixing ratio calculation, the fitness function and various operators were designed. The highway construction mixing materials ratio calculation example based on genetic algorithm proves that the method achieves expected goal and improve accuracy and efficiency of operations.

introduced intelligent calculation method to present a kind of highway construction mixing material ratio design method based on genetic algorithm. The paper is organized as follows: section 2 establishes the mathematical model of material ratio; section 3 determines operator selection and parameters determination method based on genetic algorithm; section 4 gives a specific example and section 5 concludes our work.

2. Construction of Mixing Material Ratio Mathematical Model

According to level standard of mixing material ratio, we can know that the ideal level curve is S style mixing material, which means the middle of curve should be closer to target curve in the level scope as possible. The whole curve firstly should be in the level scope and should be S style as smooth as possible. So we may know the known level scope and ma obtain material target curve according to construction environment and requirements of different areas. As long as the square of difference of each aperture between the obtained curve and target curve is the minimum, namely the summation of square difference of each aperture sieve is the minimum, then we can obtain the ideal level matching curve.

1. Introduction
Under new situation of rapid traffic development, many new changes took place in highway constructions. As the publish of Superpave research fruit of SHRP of U.S. and European CEN asphalt and asphalt research results, the world's research on the asphalt pavement is more in-depth, resulting in many important new results. Many countries also execute appropriate changes on relevant specifications. The quality problem of highway construction relates to economic development for a long period of time. In the road construction, asphalt surface is the most widely used type. In the asphalt surface construction operations, asphalt mixing materials ratio is a key factor that affects the quality of engineering. Various versions of highway asphalt pavement construction specifications specifically regulate asphalt mixing materials constitutes design so as to meet quality requirements [1, 2]. In addition, in the economic view of highway construction, the cost of maxing material pavement is also a large part in highway construction cost. How to improve the economic cost efficiency of material mixing in highway construction in the premise of meet requirements of related national standards and quality is also an important factor to be considered in the design of mixing material ratio. The paper focused on highway construction and
This work was supported by the China University of Geosciences. Li-ping Li is with China University of Geosciences (llpok795@163.com)

2.1. Aperture Optimization Model

Assume the i-th aperture sieve rate of to be obtained level matching curve is Xi, then the upper and lower limits of level matching scope of aperture is Xi-max and Xi-min. Firstly Xi should be in the level matching scope, namely X i min X X i max . Then it can meet the basic requirements of mixing materials ratio in the highway construction standards. Secondly, the whole curve should be close to target curve in the level matching scope as possible. Among them, the sieve ratio of the i-th aperture of target curve is Yi that as a given value, so we can build the following model: f ( x) = min ( X i Yi ) 2 (Equ. 1) Constraints: X i min X X i max . (Equ. 2) In some highway construction, there are special requirements on some apertures. Such kind of apertures is called as core apertures. Based on this circumstance, we can also add a weight li on each aperture, and then the formula becomes: f ( x) = min li ( X i Yi ) 2 (Equ. 3)

Constraints: X i

min

Xi

max

Li et al.: Design of Highway Construction Mixing Materials Ratio Based on Genetic Algorithm

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In the default setting, the weight of each aperture is same.

2.2. Hybrid Optimization Model

Considering about the price, we can set the price of each kind of materials is Pi and the percentage of this material is Ki, taking C1{ X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 } as example,

According to the established design, we can assure that the number of specific population is not larger than the range of random numbers, so as to not only ensure the genetic diversity of population, but also avoid large-scale calculation.

3.3 Selection of Genetic Operators

(1) Selection operator In the mixing material ratio computation, as the samples of population is too many and gene of each sample is also so much, so we use the operator that combines retain truncation selection and tournament selection [3]. The selection operation that combines these two kinds of selection will better retain the diversity of population. The specific operation is as follows: Firstly select a certain percentage of populations with best fitness to next generation, and to compare each two from the remaining individuals, so as to select individuals with higher fitness till enough individuals were determined [4-6]. In this way, we can preserve an individual that with better gene but the fitness is not very high currently. In addition, as the fitness of individuals in the population will be affected by changes of other individuals in the sub-populations, so we need to re-compute fitness value in the selection operation. At the same time, the calculation of new fitness will eliminate a large number of individuals. In order to maintain the population size, when the number of individuals in the population is less that a certain value, we need to expand the population, which means select some individuals that meet requirements to join the population. (2) Crossover operator According to the characteristics of mixing materials ratio calculation, the paper adapted two-point crossover in multi-point crossover as the crossover operator. It can not only avoid the last point effect leaded by single point crossover, but also can avoid complicated calculation problem brought by consistent crossover. It can also be easy to implement in the specific coding stage. (3) Mutation operator Based on the consideration of mixing material ratio calculation, the paper uses average random mutation, namely to take all individuals in the population as a whole, and to select the total gene number needed by this mutation according to mutation probability, and then select these gene for mutation randomly from the population. For example, for the population s =
a11a12 a21a22 an1an 2 a1k a2 k . Assume the mutation ank

Ki =

Xi
4
j =1

100% . Here we introduce a penalty factor k

Xj

that as a large constant, that is, when Xi exceeds the upper and lower scope, the final f(x) may be small. Then we can exemplify the summation of minimum variance to avoid generating some level matching program that can not meet highway construction specifications. Finally, we can establish the following model: (Equ. 4) g ( x) = min(k ( X i Yi ) 2 + K j Pj )
h( x) = min K j Pj
min

(Equ. 5) X Xi
max

Constraints: X i

3. Design of Mixing Materials Ratio Based on Genetic Algorithm

3.1 Determine Chromosome Encoding Manner
Combing with actual circumstance, real number coding was used in the paper. At the same time, we can also consider about parameter dynamical coding according to different type number of materials in the mixing, so as to dynamically configure searching space to improve coding accuracy. The paper takes the chromosome as real number array and generates different real number array C1{ X 1 , X 2 , , X n } according to different types of mixing materials. Such a kind of encoding manner can not only avoid quantization error introduced by traditional binary coding as well as the problem of encoding length increasing rapidly with accuracy, but also eliminate two taches of chromosome encoding and decoding.

3.2 Data Preprocessing

The initial value of genetic algorithm is a group pf number that generated randomly. It is a key problem of how to determine the scope of random number. Too large scope will lead to complicated calculation, and too little scope will decrease the genetic diversity. Specific to the project, the strategy of random number generation is as follows: Take four kinds of materials as example to generate a random array C1{ X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 } , where X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 is random number between 1-240. The value 240 is generated in this way: assume we need this kind of material, then we can set the population scale is 15n according to parameter settings. The scope of random number is 0-15n2.
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probability is p and the gene number to be mutated is n k p . Select m numbers from {1, 2, , n k} randomly and mutate the corresponding m allele genes. Set m=3, the selected random number is {6, k+5, (n-1)k+7}, and the new population after mutation is

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International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 36-40, Jul. 2011.

a11a12 a21a22 s ' = a31a32 an1an 2

a16 ' a2 k a35 ' an 7 '

a1k a3k . ank

3.4 Control Parameters Selection

(1) Iteration termination conditions Genetic algorithm is an iterative searching method, which approximate optimal solution through times of evolution, so we should determine termination conditions. The most commonly used termination method is to set times of iteration. If genetic iteration reaches the set value, algorithm terminates. If target function is problem with optimal value, deviation control method can be used for algorithm termination. When the deviation between fitness degree and actual target value is less than allowable value, algorithm terminates. The third method is to check change of fitness. In the latter part of genetic algorithm, once fitness of optimal individual does not change or has little change, the algorithm terminates. The method to determine whether the algorithm should terminate in the paper is based on the settings of specific running results. As there is not a defined objective function value, and for different projects, the objective function value verifies large, so we can set the evolution generations as the iteration termination condition. It can avoid standard deviation caused by uniform objective function of different projects, so as to improve calculation accuracy effectively. (2) Population size n Population size also has impact on efficiency of GA. As general understanding, larger population size means more diversity of individuals, so the algorithm has little chance to local solution. Too large population size will multiply calculation amount. As to a specific optimization problem, no theoretical result determines how to select population size. Large amount of researches show that the population size in actual application is tens to hundreds. Typically, the value within this region can meet practical requirements, and will not affect accuracy of solution. Of course, another reason is considering of calculation speed. In general, the type of highway construction concrete materials is about 4-6, which is up to 8 types. And materials for the construction of different highway are not same. Therefore, we can consider using dynamic population size. According to the required material type i, we can set the population size as n=15i. Thus the population size is at least 60 and at most 120. Considering fully about the diversity of population, it can also avoid low system running of excessive computing caused by large amount of population size. (3) Crossover probability pc The crossover probability controls the application frequency of crossover operator. In the new generation population, we need to execute crossover operations on the

chromosome structure of pcn individuals. The higher is crossover probability, the faster is the introduction of new structure in the population. But the loss speed of the obtained fine genetic structure will also increase accordingly, which will accordingly enlarge the computation amount of the whole project. Too lower crossover probability may also lead to search block. From large amount of data from practices, we select pc=0.40 initially. (4) Mutation probability pm Mutation operation is an effective means to keep population diversity. After cross-over, each gene of all individual string in mating pool randomly changes with mutation probability pm, so each generation takes place pm n L mutations. Too little mutation probability will result in some high-quality can not be restored. Too high mutation probability will transform genetic searching into random searching. Therefore, in the practical applications, the mutation probability generally takes a small value between 0.001 and 0.01. In the project, as the type of mixing material is generally between 4-8, considering the population size and genetic number of each individual, we select pm=0.06. (5) Fitness calculation After an evolution of the population, we need to compute the fitness of individuals in newly generated population, which is the sole standard to determine advantage of each individual of the population. According to above paper, the result of population individual computation is an array, so we need to specific to the percentage of this array as so to obtain specific percentage. Taking C1{ X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 } as example, the ratio computation we want to obtain is P 1 =

X1
4 i =1

100% . Then we can finally

Xi

obtain the fitness of this array according to standard sieve ratio.

4. Calculation Example
4.1 Operation Flow
The operation flow of material mixing ratio computation is shown in Fig. 1.

4.2 Experiment Conditions

In practical applications, we took highway construction material in 2010 provided by some agency as test data. The four kinds of materials are as following: 9.5-16mm gravel, 4.75-9.5mm gravel, 0-4.75mm mechanical sand and slag. The screening data of these mineral materials is as Table 1 shows, which gives quality percent through the first line size screen.

4.3 Computation Results and Analysis

After optimization computation, we can arrive at results as shown in Table 2, where the first line indicates screen
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Li et al.: Design of Highway Construction Mixing Materials Ratio Based on Genetic Algorithm

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Start

aperture. From the table, we can see that the computation result has little difference is target matching 81.2 and computation result 81.3 when the aperture is 9.5mm. The difference may be caused by parameter setting or computation error, the effect of which on result is negligible. In addition, although computation results in the range of matching scope, there is significant difference between optimal target data and matching data except for 16mm. It can be seen that the genetic algorithm has a huge advantage in optimal searching.

Select road construction type Set various parameters, including grading range, raw material prices, raw material type, etc. Select construction standards and goals

5. Conclusion
The paper applied genetic algorithm into mixing material ratio module and price optimization module and designed models according to highway construction requirements of different district and different levels. A unified solution was presented to different types of highway. Each kind of material corresponds to a part of population. The combination of all populations constitutes a set of complete mixing material ratio program. Aiming at specific application, the coding manner, genetic operator and control parameter were also improved in the algorithm. Real number coding was utilized and selection operator that combines truncation selection as well as tournament selection was determined. The highway construction mixing material ratio computation based on genetic achieved the expected object and achieved mixing ratio calculation. Computation example proves that it improves computational accuracies and efficiency of operations. However, the determination of weights as well as setting s of control parameters should be further studied in the future research.

Generate initial population in random way

Get sufficient initial population individuals? Y Compute mixing ratio with genetic algorithm

Meet requirements? Y Perform asphalt nature mix test

End and print reports

Fig. 1. Operation flow.

Table 1: Mineral materials screening data

Name 9.5-16mm 4.75-9.5mm 0-4.75mm Slag

16 100 100 100 100

13.2 94.3 100 100 100

9.5 11.2 96.7 100 100

4.75 0.2 0.9 98.7 100

2.36 0.1 0.0 57.0 100

1.18 0.0 0.0 31.2 100

0.6 0.0 0.0 18.2 100

0.3 0.0 0.0 10.4 100

0.15 0.0 0.0 4.2 98.3

0.075 0.0 0.0 0.0 86.2

Table 2: Optimization Computation Result

53 Grade matching upper limit Grade matching lower limit Grade matching middle value Target matching Computation result Adjustment result 100 100 100 100 100 100

37.5 100 100 100 100 100 100

31.5 100 100 100 100 100 100

26.5 100 100 100 100 100 100

19 100 100 100 100 100 100

16 100 100 100 100 100 100

13.2 100 90 95 90.9 98.9 98.9

9.5 85 68 76.5 81.2 81.3 81.3

4.75 66 38 53 50.7 50.7 50.7

2.36 5 24 37 31.7 31.7 31.7

1.18 36 15 26.5 20 20 20

0.6 26 10 19 14.2 14.2 14.2

0.3 20 7 13.5 10.7 10.7 10.7

0.15 15 5 10 7.8 7.8 7.8

0.075 6 4 6 5.2 5.2 5.2

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International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 36-40, Jul. 2011.

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[1] [2] [3] [4] Lin Xiao-ying & Wang Yuan, On Optimization for Multi-Objective Cutting Problem, (2003) Natural Science Journal of Harbin Normal University, vol. 19, pp. 14-16. Han Dong & Xie Zheng, One Method of Changing Power of Coefficient in Multi-objective Optimality, (2003) Mathematics in Economics, vol. 20, pp. 84-88. Yao Wen-jun, Traditional Genetic Algorithm and Research Fruit, (2004) Computer and Digital Engineering, vol. 32, pp. 41-43. Sun Xiao-yan & Gong Dun-wei, Varying Population Size Cooperative Coevolutionary Genetic Algorithm and Its application in Optimization, (2004) Control and Decision, vol. 19, pp. 1437-1440. Li Xia & Ye Jia-an, Optimal Spatial Search Using Genetic Algorithms and GIS, (2004) Acta Geographica Sinica, vol. 59, pp. 745-753. Chen Hai-tao, Zhao You, & Wu Qi-quan, The Application of Gause Competitive Coevolution Algorithm in Fuzzy Neural Network, Computer Engineering and Applications, vol. 34, pp. 85-87.

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Li-ping Li was born in Yangquan, Shanxi Province, in 1979. She received the M.Sc. degree from School of Transportation. Wuhan University of Technology in 2004. She is the author or coauthor of more than ten national and international papers and also collaborated in several research projects. She is with China University of Geosciences since 2004. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in China University of Geosciences. Her current research interests include road & bridge engineering, road & bridge design.

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