Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442

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Computational Materials Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/commatsci

Reliability-based design optimization of volume fraction distribution in

functionally graded composites
Y.J. Noh a,⇑, Y.J. Kang b, S.J. Youn a, J.R. Cho b,c, O.K. Lim b
a
Dept. of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Republic of Korea
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
c
Research and Development Institute of Midas IT, Gyeonggi 463-400, Republic of Korea

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

Article history: Functionally graded material (FGM) has a continuous and functional distribution of volume fractions of
Received 12 July 2012 constituent particles, which leads to superior thermo-mechanical performance to classical laminated
Received in revised form 9 November 2012 composite materials. Since the thermo-mechanical characteristics of an FGM depend on the volume frac-
Accepted 4 December 2012
tion distribution, it is important to tailor appropriate volume fraction distribution that satisfies the
Available online 17 January 2013
desired performance requirements under given loading and boundary conditions. Even though numerical
optimization technique may serve as an excellent material tailoring tool, the capacity of current manu-
Keywords:
facturing techniques of FGM may not yield the target volume fraction. To deal with uncertainty in the
Functionally graded composites
Graded layer
manufacturing process, a reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) for FGM composite is proposed.
Volume fraction In RBDO, a finite number of volume fractions of homogenized FGM layers and material properties are
Stress ratio considered as random variables, with statistical information such as mean, standard deviation, and sta-
Reliability-based design optimization tistical distributions. Design of experiments and response surface models are used to obtain explicit
forms of thermal stresses for RBDO formulation. It is observed through the numerical experiment that
the RBDO finds the optimized volume fraction distribution with high reliability, such that the graded lay-
ers do not fail in the presence of manufacturing uncertainty.
Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction laminating a number of heterogeneous material layers with dis-

FGM was firstly proposed as a heat-resistant composite mate-
rial in the 1980s to suppress the stress concentration and exfoli-
ated phenomena at interfaces between distinct homogeneous
material layers, which commonly occur in classical bi-material-
type composite materials. Unlike the classical composite materials,
FGM has a continuous material property distribution over the en-
tire material domain achieved by gradually changing the volume
fractions of base constituent materials in the graded layers. The
graded layers with continuous material characteristics reduce the
stress concentration occurring at sharp material interfaces in clas-
sical bi-material-type composites. Thanks to the spatial continuity
and flexibility in the volume fraction, FGMs are widely used in var-
ious mechanical and bioengineering fields, such as electronic
materials, metal cutting tools, artificial bone, dental implants,
and thermally resistant composites [1–3].
However, it is not easy to produce the graded layers with grad-
ually varying continuous volume fractions, due to the manufactur-
ing cost and time required in real applications, so the graded layers
are manufactured by discretizing a continuous volume fraction and
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: romana79@kmu.ac.kr (Y.J. Noh).
cretized uniform volume fractions. But, in the design stage, the vol-
ume fraction of a graded layer can be optimally tailored in either a
continuous or discrete manner. Various optimization methods
have been proposed for the volume fraction optimization. Ootao
et al. used a neural network method [4] and a genetic algorithm
[5] for hollow a FGM cylinder and FGM plate, respectively. Cho
and Ha [6] used an interior penalty function and golden section
methods to minimize the thermal stress concentration that occurs
in Ni–Al2O3 thermally resistant FGM composite. Cho and Shin [7]
carried out volume fraction optimization using a neural network
for improving the efficiency of the optimization process. Goupee
and Vel [8] presented a two-dimensional simulation and optimiza-
tion of material distribution in FGM for a thermo-mechanical
process.
The proposed optimization techniques assume that all the de-
sign variables are deterministic, because the volume fractions or
the material properties of FGM composites have fixed values. In
this context, such optimization techniques are classified as a deter-
ministic optimization method. However, in real applications, not
only the volume fractions but also the material properties have
probabilistic characteristics due to uncertainties in the manufac-
turing process, such as variation in material properties, and manu-
facturing tolerance. The various manufacturing processes include

0927-0256/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2012.12.003
436 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442
powder metallurgy, self-propagating high-temperature synthesis,
deposition, and plasma spray [9–12]. These methods are incapable
of adequately achieving the target volume fraction because the fine
and random particles of the base materials are mixed at the micro
level, making the control of volume fraction distribution difficult.
The resulting volume fraction could yield material failure, and
accordingly, the uncertainty in materials and manufacturing pro-
cess should be considered in the design optimization process.
In traditional structural analysis, the uncertainty has been dealt
with by introducing a safety factor for ensuring structural safety,
but design using safety factors could yield excessively conservative
or unsafe designs [13]. To resolve this problem, reliability-based
design optimization was introduced [14]. The reliability-based de-
sign optimization is done to find an optimum design that mini-
mizes an objective to achieve a target reliability, where the
reliability indicates the probability that the current design is safe.
Thus, unlike the deterministic optimization or safety-factor-based
optimization, the reliability-based design optimization can achieve
cost efficiency and target reliability. In order to extend RBDO to
FGM composites, the statistical characteristics of the volume frac-
tion such as mean, standard deviation, and distribution types
should be assumed a priori. Since the material property in each
graded layer is calculated by volume fractions, the uncertainty of
the material property is accordingly considered in RBDO.
In this paper, the FGM composite models are explained in Sec-
tion 2. The basic concept of reliability-based design optimization is
introduced in Section 3. In Section 4, the RBDO process of volume
fraction in FGM is explained. A numerical example will be intro-
duced in Section 5 to illustrate how the RBDO is applied to FGM
composite.
2. Metal–ceramic FGM composite material
2.1. Equivalent material properties of dual-phase FGM composite
Fig. 1 shows an FGM composite composed of two homogenous
material layers and a functionally graded material layer, where two
base materials possess thermoelastic performance characteristics
that conflict with each other. The base materials A and B are on
the bottom and top of the graded layer, respectively, and the
graded layer has a spatially continuous volume fraction from mate-
rial A to B by increasing the fraction of the material B. The graded
layer has mixed volume fractions of A and B, and thus the summa-
tion of the volume fraction of A and B should satisfy the physical
relation of VA + VB = 100%.
The continuous volume fraction in the graded layer is rather
impractical, because it requires elaborate costly and time-consuming
fabrication process. Thus, in real applications, discrete-type FGM
Fig. 1. FGM composite material with continuous volume fractions.
composites are usually used to shorten the fabrication time and re-
duce manufacturing costs, for which the graded layer is discretized
and laminated with a number of heterogeneous layers with
different uniform volume fractions, as mentioned above. For
example, Fig. 2 shows a simply supported metal–ceramic FGM
composite beam with four graded layers with volume fractions
VB of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%. Since the material properties of
graded layers and their thermoelastic behaviors highly depend
on the volume fraction, the volume fraction distribution needs to
be appropriately determined to satisfy the required performance
under consideration.
The change of volume fraction changes the material properties
of FGM, so the material properties need to be obtained to calculate
the stress in the multi-layers. The material properties of the graded
layer are influenced by the size, shape, orientation and dispersion
structure as well as the volume fractions of constituent particles
at the microscopic level [1]. The goal of the current study is to pres-
ent the RBDO process for seeking an optimum volume fraction dis-
tribution and to compare the optimum results between RBDO and
DO. Other homogenization methods, such as self-consistent [15],
Mori–Tanaka [16], or asymptotic expansion homogenization meth-
ods [17] can be used to calculate the material properties without
the loss of generality. The final optimum solution will be affected
by the choice of the homogenization method, because the thermal
stress distribution obtained by the thermoelastic analysis depends
on the equivalent material properties of FGMs. However, for the
goals of the current study, a homogenization method considering
only the volume fraction at the macro level, a linear rule of mixture
[18], is employed to approximate the response surface model of
the maximum tensile stress that occurs in FGM. For problems
requiring more sophisticated calculation of material properties,
other homogenization methods can also be used by integrating
with the RBDO process. The equivalent elastic modulus Eh, coeffi-
cient of thermal expansion ah, Poison’s ratio mh, and tensile
strength rBt,h of the hth graded layer are calculated using the linear
rule of mixture method. Let Vm and Vc be the respective volume
fractions of a metal and ceramic, which are calculated as follows:
Eh ¼ V m Em þ V c Ec ð1Þ
ah ¼ V m am þ V c ac ð2Þ
mh ¼ V m mm þ V c mc ð3Þ
rBt;h ¼ V m rBt;m þ V c rBt;c ð4Þ
where h = 1  N, and N is the total number of graded layers.
 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442 437

Fig. 2. FGM composite beam composed of discrete homogeneous layers.

2.2. Characteristics of metal–ceramic FGM composite Even though the optimized volume fractions could be obtained
by numerical optimization technique, it is difficult to manufacture
Referring to Fig. 2, let us consider three types of FGM composite an FGM composite that exactly satisfies such an ideal volume frac-
beam models: bi-material composite, FGM composite with one tion. Fig. 4 illustrates a porosity gradient in a sintered ceramic sam-
graded layer, and FGM composite with four graded layers. The base ple produced by pressure filtration [19]. Even though a closely
materials A and B are Ni and Al2O3, and their detailed material controlled manufacturing process is used, the grading achieved in
properties are given in Section 5. The dimensions L and d are 50 FGM is rather different from the target grading. Thus, the random-
and 10 mm, respectively. All three FGM beam models are subjected ness in the volume fraction of each layer and material properties
to the same thermal loading of a temperature difference of 200 K needs to be considered at the design stage. This can be achieved
between the top and bottom surfaces. Fig. 3 shows three types of by RBDO, in which the uncertainty in the manufacturing process
metal–ceramic composite beam models and the thickness-wise is reflected by introducing the probability of failure for constraints.
thermal stress distributions, where the FGM composite with four
graded layers have two different volume fractions, FGM (4 graded
layers)_01 and FGM (4 graded layers)_02. The FGM composite with
1 layer has a volume fraction of 0.5. The volume fractions of
FGM_01 are 0.1, 0.3, 0.7, and 0.9, and the ones of FGM_02 are
0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8.
When the bi-material composite is used, it produces a signifi-
cant stress concentration at the interface of the two base materials
due to the discrepancy between two heterogeneous material char-
acteristics. Even though the mesh size is more refined, the stress
concentration is not reduced. When the FGM composite with one
layer is used, the stress concentration is reduced, but it is still large.
When the FGM composite with four graded layers is used, the
stress concentration is considerably reduced. However, it is worth
noting that the peak thermal stresses are somewhat different,
depending on the volume fraction distribution, even though the
same number of graded layers is used. Thus, one can clearly con-
firm the fact that the total number of graded layers and the volume
fraction distribution significantly affect the thermal stress concen-
tration, and the optimal tailoring of these factors could minimize
Fig. 4. Variation of porosity in achieved gradient [16].
the peak thermal stresses.

Fig. 3. Thermal stress distributions: (a) bi-material composite, (b) FGM composite with one graded layer, and (c) FGM composite with four graded layers.
438 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442
3. Reliability-based design optimization
The reliability-based design optimization is done to find a de-
sign that is not only economical, but also reliable in the presence
of uncertainty. The objective is to minimize the total cost without
the probability of failure for a system exceeding a specified target
probability, as shown in Eqs. (5)–(7). The cost function can be ex-
pressed as a vector of design variables d, which are the mean val-
ues of the vector of random variables X. The random variable can
be the design variable or random parameter whose mean values
are not changed during the RBDO process. For example, in struc-
tural problems, geometrical variables such as thickness or length
can be design variables, but material properties such as Young’s
modulus are random parameters. The function Gi(X) indicates a
limit state function, and a system no longer fulfills the ith design
criteria if Gi(X) > 0. The probability that the random variables are
within a safe region should be less than the specified target prob-
ability of failure P Tar
Fi .
min : costðdÞ
s:t: PðGi ðXÞ > 0Þ 6 PTar
Fi ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; NC
L U
d ¼ lðXÞ; d 6d6d ; d 2 RNDV and X 2 RNRV
where NC, NDV, and NRV are the number of probabilistic constraints,
number of design variables, and number of random variables,
respectively.
The probability of failure for each constraint function is esti-
mated by a multi-dimensional integral as [17]:
Z to save the computational time because the RBDO optimum is usu-
PF  PðGðXÞ > 0Þ ¼ fx ðXÞdx
GðXÞP0
where x is the realization of the random vector X, and fx(X) is the
joint probability density function (PDF) of X. Since it is very difficult
to compute the multi-dimensional integral analytically, approxima-
tion methods such as the first-order reliability method (FORM) [20–
22] or the second-order reliability method (SORM) are used [23,24].
The FORM and SORM estimate the probability of failure by approx-
imating the constraint function G(X) by first and second-order Tay-
lor series expansions, respectively. The FORM mostly provides
adequate accuracy, and is much easier to use than the SORM, and
hence it has been commonly used in RBDO.
To calculate the probability of failure of the constraint function
using FORM and SORM, it is necessary to find a contact point on the
limit state function which has the shortest distance between the
limit state function and the origin in the independent Gaussian
space (U-space). The limit sate function is transformed from
X-space to U-space using the Rosenblatt transformation [25],
defined as g(u)  G(x(u)) = G(x), and the contact point is referred
to as the most probable point (MPP), denoted as u⁄. Using a perfor-
mance measure approach (PMA+) [26], the MPP u⁄ can be obtained
by solving the following optimization problem:
max : g i ðuÞ
s:t: kuk ¼ bti
where bti is the target reliability index such that P Tar
¼ Uðbti Þ using
Fi
the FORM. The ith constraint in Eq. (6) can be rewritten as:
P½Gi ðXÞ > 0  PTar  prove the accuracy of the approximate model, but it does not al-
F i 6 0 ) Gi ðx Þ 6 0
where Gi(x⁄) is the ith constraint function evaluated at the most
probable point (MPP), x⁄, in X-space. If the constraint function at
the MPP is less than or equal to zero, then the ith constraint in
Eq. (6) is satisfied for the given target reliability. Thus, Eqs. (5)–
(7) can be rewritten using PMA+ as:
Fig. 5. Comparison of deterministic optimization and reliability-based design
ð5Þ optimization.
ð6Þ min : costðdÞ ð12Þ
ð7Þ s:t: Gi ðx Þ 6 0; i ¼ 1; . . . ; NC ð13Þ
L U
d 6 d 6 d ; d 2 RNDV and X 2 RNRV ð14Þ
The RBDO requires more computational time comparing with
the deterministic optimization due to the reliability analysis. Thus,
the PMA + uses a deterministic optimum design as an initial design
ð8Þ ally close to the deterministic optimum.
Fig. 5 shows a graphical comparison between deterministic
optimization and reliability-based design optimization. If X1 and
X2 are random variables, the deterministic optimum point only
has 50% or even less of reliability ð1  PTar
F Þ%, because the obtained
optimum might be within the failure region (graded area) due to
the variability of two random variables. On the other hand, the
RBDO optimum point is away from the constraints and has a de-
sired reliability, e.g. 95% reliability, regardless of the variability of
two random variables. Thus, RBDO provides a more reliable design
than DO.
4. RBDO of Metal–ceramic heat-resisting FGM composite
4.1. RBDO process
In the RBDO process for FGM composites, the objective function
and constraint function first need to be defined. Since the stresses
and stress ratios as objective and constraint functions cannot be
expressed explicitly, their approximate models are obtained using
design of experiment through the finite element analysis of FGM
structures. For the finite element analysis, the material properties
ð9Þ for graded layers are calculated using a homogenization technique,
such as the linear mixture rule as shown in Fig. 6. The accuracy of
ð10Þ the approximate models for the objective and constraint functions
highly depends on the experimental points, so it is important to se-
lect appropriate experimental points that can well approximate
real models. Increasing the number of experimental points can im-
ð11Þ
ways guarantee the accuracy of the model, and increases the
computational time for the design of experiment. In this paper,
interior central composite design (ICCD), which is known as an effi-
cient and accurate DOE method, is used to select experimental
points and determine their number. Once the experimental points
are selected, the approximate model can be obtained using
 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442
Fig. 6. Flowchart of the volume fraction optimization using RBDO.
regression or interpolation models. In this paper, a response sur-
face model with third-order polynomials is used.
After the response surface models for objective and constraint
functions are obtained, statistical information such as mean, stan-
dard deviation, and distribution types for random variables and
target reliability for each constraint needs to be defined. Using
the statistical information of random variables, the RBDO finds
an optimum design that satisfies the probabilistic constraints. To
verify whether the RBDO optimum design achieves the target reli-
ability, the Monte Carlo Simulation is carried out at the obtained
RBDO design points.
4.2. Deterministic optimization and reliability-based design
optimization
In the deterministic optimization for FGM problems, the volume
fractions are determined to minimize the maximum thermal stress
that occurs due to the thermal expansion such that yielding can be
prevented in the FGM composite. Thus, the volume fractions of
graded layers are the design variables, the maximum thermal
stress is the objective function, and the constraint functions are
the stress ratios of graded layers, which are the ratios of the
X-directional stresses to the tensile strength. Since the thermal
stresses in other directions are ignorable in the next numerical
example explained Section 5, they are not considered.
Find d ¼ fV i g; i ¼ 1; . . . ; Ng
min: f ðdÞ ¼ jrx-axial
max ðdÞj
s:t: Gj ðdÞ ¼ rV j ðdÞ  1 6 0; j ¼ m; 1; . . . ; Ng ; c
L U
di 6 di 6 di ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; Ng
where V1–V4 are the volume fractions of the ceramic, Ng is the total
L U
number of graded layers, and dj 6 dj 6 dj are the lower and upper
bounds of the volume fraction. The stress ratio is defined as:
439
(
r t ¼ rrBt;jxx ; rxx P 0
rv j ¼ ; j ¼ m; 1; . . . ; Ng ; c ð19Þ
r c ¼ rrBc;j
xx
; rxx < 0
where rBt,j is the tensile strength of the jth graded layer; rBc,j is the
compressive strength of the jth graded layer; rxx is the X-directional
tensile stress; and r  t and r
 c are the ratios of the X-directional ten-
sile or compressive stress to the tensile or compressive strength,
respectively. If the stress ratios are larger than 1, it means that
the FGM composite fails. The tensile and compressive strength of
a graded layer are calculated using the linear rule of mixture meth-
od, Eq. (4). In this paper, a sequential quadratic programming meth-
od, which is suitable for nonlinear problems, is used as a
deterministic optimization method [27].
Similarly, the RBDO formulation is done to find the volume frac-
tion of each graded layer to minimize the maximum thermal stress,
but the probability that the stress ratio is larger than 1.0 should be
less than the target probability of failure in all layers.
Find d ¼ fV i g; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N g ð20Þ
min : f ðdÞ ¼ jrxaxial
max ðdÞj ð21Þ
s:t: PðGj ðXðdÞÞ > 0Þ 6 PTar
Fi ; j ¼ m; 1; . . . ; Ng ; c ð22Þ
L U
di 6 di 6 di ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; Ng ð23Þ
For problems with many design variables such as 2-D smooth
volume fraction gradings, it is difficult to find the optimum volume
fraction values satisfying given constraints in a vast design space
for all design variables. However, in real applications, it is rare to
find the FGM composite problems with continuously variable
graded layers due to technical limits and manufacturing costs, so
the current RBDO method can be used in many FGM composite
problems. For future research, a new RBDO method will be studied
to be applied to various FGM composite problems.
5. Numerical example
A numerical experiment is carried out in this section to explore
how the RBDO yields reliable design for a metal–ceramic heat-
resistant FGM composite. Section 5.1 explains the definition of
the model problem, and Section 5.2 explains the design of experi-
ments and approximate models required for the volume fraction
optimization by RBDO. The optimum results of DO and RBDO are
compared in Section 5.3.
5.1. Definition of problem
In this paper, a simply supported metal–ceramic FGM compos-
ite beam shown in Fig. 7 is considered for the numerical experi-
ment. The bottom and top layers are Ni and Al2O3, respectively,
and the material properties for which are shown in Table 1 [6].
The length and thickness of each graded layer are 50 and 8 mm,
ð15Þ
respectively, and the thickness of both the Ni and Al2O3 is 1 mm.
The values V1, V2, V3 and V4 indicate the uniform volume fractions
ð16Þ of ceramic in each graded layer. Only the right half of the beam is
taken for the numerical simulation according to the problem sym-
ð17Þ metry, and the symmetric boundary condition is specified to the
left end, while the right end is simply supported. The thermal load-
ð18Þ ing is applied such that the temperature varies linearly from 300 K
at the bottom to 1300 K at the top. The FGM composite domain is
discretized with a total of 6000 8-node quadrilateral elements, and
the thermoelastic analysis is carried out using a commercial FEM
code, Midas NFX [28].
440 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442

Fig. 7. Simply supported FGM composite beam subject to thermal loading.

Table 1
Thermo-mechanical material properties of Ni and Al2O3. rV i , rm and rc are the stress ratios in the ith graded layer, the metal
layer, and the ceramic layer, respectively. Using the design variable
Items Ni Al2O3
and function values, response surface models with third-order
Young’s modulus, E (GPa) 199.5 393 polynomials can be obtained as shown in Eqs. (24)–(30). The
Coefficient of thermal expansion, a (106/K) 15.4 7.4
Poisson’s ratio, m 0.3 0.25
experimental design and response surface models are carried out
Tensile strength, rBt (MPa) 317 300 using a commercial tool for Process Integration, Automation and
Optimization (PIDO), PIAnO [29].
rm ¼ 1:31881 þ 3:05106d1 þ 2:58989d2 þ 1:50208d3
2 2
þ 0:214545d4  0:603048d1  1:45011d2
5.2. Design of experiment and response surface models
2 2 3 3
 1:00462d3  0:451386d4 þ 2:82056d1 þ 1:86439d2
To generate approximate models for the objective and con- 3 3
þ 0:731612d3 þ 0:108758d4  1:09815d1 d2
straint functions, the lower and upper bounds of the volume frac-
tions in each layer are given in Table 2. With 75 sampling points  0:406924d1 d3  0:0882187d1 d4  0:311893d2 d3
obtained from the design of experiment, the stress ratios are calcu-  0:19672d2 d4  0:0710538d3 d4 ð24Þ
lated from the stress of the X-direction rxx at x = 5 mm along the
Y-direction, and rxaxial
max is obtained from the maximum value of rV 1 ¼ 18:3228 þ 9:77482d1 þ 27:1205d2 þ 31:6413d3
rxx. As is addressed in the numerical experiment of our previous 2 2 2
paper [6], stress components other than the bending stress rxx þ 28:2677d4  52:4722d1  68:2489d2  52:7785d3
are negligible, except for in the region in the vicinity of the right 2 3
 33:8619d4 þ 98:8046d1 þ 54:6755d2 þ 27:9583d3
3 3

end, where the edge effect occurs with relatively small stress val-
3
ues. For this reason, the stress distribution of rxx in the thickness þ 13:233d4  4:8404d1 d2  4:01354d1 d3
direction at x = 5 mm is considered. The objective and constraint þ 0:68732d1 d4 þ 5:59683d2 d3  0:0239242d2 d4
function values at each sampling point are shown in Table 3, where
þ 0:974334d3 d4 ð25Þ

rV 2 ¼ 83:7747 þ 13:9217d1 þ 106:658d2 þ 63:1457d3

2 2 2
Table 2 þ 211:513d4  62:8199d1  222:395d2  96:4937d3
Range of design variables. 2 3 3 3
 261:78d4 þ 120:018d1 þ 221:008d2 þ 54:3814d3
Design variables Ranges 3
þ 110:106d4  32:6707d1 d2 þ 9:79338d1 d3
V1 0.1–0.3
V2 0.3–0.5 þ 4:86073d1 d4  27:5352d2 d3  18:4658d2 d4
V3 0.5–0.7
V4 0.7–0.9
þ 4:17587d3 d4 ð26Þ

Table 3
Thermoelastic results obtained by finite element analysis according to DOE.

Case Design variables Results

V1 V2 V3 V4 rm rV 1 rV 2 rV 3 rV 4 rc rx-axial
max

1 0.1375 0.3875 0.6375 0.7875 0.3946 0.7380 0.4660 0.7624 0.4903 0.8161 244.8440
2 0.1375 0.3875 0.6375 0.8625 0.3611 0.7564 0.5585 0.6105 0.9695 0.4206 293.1080
3 0.1375 0.3875 0.7125 0.7875 0.4637 0.8253 0.5838 1.3101 0.5606 0.6032 399.4200
73 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.7000 0.5681 0.4862 0.3369 0.5697 0.7161 1.4135 424.0440
74 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.9000 0.4806 0.5386 0.5843 0.6173 1.2721 0.3689 383.7910
75 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 0.5257 0.5115 0.4566 0.3800 0.6204 0.9080 272.4140
 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442 441

rV 3 ¼ 34:6291  0:786958d1 þ 14:901d2  156:724d3 Here, SSerr is the sum of squares of residuals; SStot is the total
2 2 2 sum of squares; fi is the associated function value; y is the mean
 5:9347d4 þ 21:7318d1  11:5472d2 þ 270:514d3
of the observed data yi. A narrow-range width of volume fractions
2 3 3 3
þ 17:7701d4  21:6132d1 þ 19:4294d2  115:928d3 in each layer, 0.2, is used to save computational time of carrying
3 out the design of experiments as shown in Table 2. The volume
þ 0:133163d4 þ 1:89199d1 d2  12:9415d1 d3
fractions of the ceramic are expected to linearly increase along
þ 1:98677d1 d4  23:2493d2 d3  2:20161d2 d4 Y-direction to endure the high temperature on the top of the beam,
 36:9515d3 d4 ð27Þ so the used design bounds for the volume fractions are enough to
build the DOE-created response surface. For a wide range of
rV 4 ¼ 113:275 þ 5:42688d1  47:8163d2  52:8649d3 volume fractions, 0 to 1, many designs of experiments would be
necessary. Accordingly, an efficient method of design of experi-
2 2 2
 351:014d4  7:64572d1 þ 132:122d2 þ 117:88d3 ments combined with an accurate response surface model will be
2 3 3 3 further studied for more general FGM problems.
þ 430:293d4 þ 11:9796d1  109:573d2  60:5421d3
3
 160:428d4 þ 1:74405d1 d2  2:56398d1 d3 5.3. Comparison of optimum results between DO and RBDO
 3:85066d1 d4 þ 6:07341d2 d3  11:9286d2 d4
For optimization of the FGM example, the initial values of vol-
 32:2736d3 d4 ð28Þ ume fractions are 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 from the bottom to the
top layer. The lower and upper bounds are 0.0 and 1.0 (Table 5).
rc ¼ 22:83 þ 8:4216d1  13:3784d2  26:7937d3 For RBDO, statistical information on random variables is necessary.
2 2 2 The statistical information needs to be obtained from experimental
þ 133:52d4  16:0508d1 þ 28:4377d2 þ 32:4613d3
2 3 3 3
data of random variables. For example, in Fig. 4, if the porosity is
 180:47d4 þ 26:6383d1  24:3404d2  18:0228d3 considered as a random variable, the porosity gradients need to
3 be obtained by testing enough number of sintered ceramic sam-
þ 76:0271d4  0:5657d1 d2  2:66527d1 d3
ples. However, the experimental data do not exist in the practical
 3:08544d1 d4 þ 1:09703d2 d3 þ 1:66669d2 d4
application of FGM. Thus, it is assumed that the distribution types
þ 6:11871d3 d4 ð29Þ of the volume fractions are normal distributions, and the coeffi-
cients of variations, which are the ratios of the standard deviation
rxaxial
max ¼ 24163:5  1974:53d1 þ 16031:2d2 þ 37191:4d3 to mean values, are 5%. The target probability of failure for each
2 2 constraint is 2.275% (target reliability = 97.725%). To estimate the
þ 69192:8d4 þ 6294:12d1  36505:8d2 reliabilities at the initial design, DO design, and RBDO design,
2 2 3
 66244:2d3  97235:61d4  4013:67d1 100,000 sampling points are used for Monte Carlo simulation.
3 3 3 Table 5 shows the DO and RBDO results of the FGM example.
þ 32818:8d2 þ 40949:4d3 þ 46096:9d4 Since the volume fraction values of the ceramic are expected to lin-
 1588:36d1 d2  1374:79d1 d3  3023:89d1 d4 early increase along the Y-direction due to the thermal load, the
 1379:75d2 d3  2301:86d2 d4  2216:4d3 d4 ð30Þ initial values are selected as 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8. Comparing with
the maximum thermal stress at the initial design, the maximum
To verify the accuracy of the response surface model, an ad- thermal stress at the DO optimum design is decreased from
justed coefficient of determination in Eq. (31) is used [30]. The clo- 252.60 to 213.05 MPa. When the RBDO is used, the maximum ther-
ser the adjusted coefficient of determination is to 1, the closer the mal stress is increased slightly from 213.05 to 224.12 MPa. As ex-
response surface is to the real model. As shown in Table 4, because pected, the optimum volume fractions gradually increase along the
all adjusted coefficients of determination are over 0.9, the obtained Y-direction, and they have a larger portion of the ceramic than the
response surface well describes the real behavior of this FGM initial ones such that the beam endures the high temperature on
example. the top. As explained in Section 3, since the RBDO optimum design
n1 yields a more reliable design, it leads to somewhat of an increase in
R2adj ¼ 1  ð1  R2 Þ ð31Þ the objective function with high reliability in the RBDO optimum
np1
design. The increased maximum thermal stress in RBDO might lead
in which n is the degrees of freedom, p is the total number of regres- to concern about the yielding of the FGM composite, but the tensile
sors, and R2 is the coefficient of determination, which is defined as: or compressive strengths of graded layers are also increased for the
P volume fraction distribution obtained from RBDO. Thus, the in-
SSerr ðy  fi Þ2
R2 ¼ 1  ¼ 1  Pi i ð32Þ creased maximum thermal stress does not lead to the yielding of
SStot 2
i ðyi  yÞ the FGM composite.
Table 6 shows the reliabilities estimated at the initial design,
DO optimum design, and RBDO optimum design. The initial design

Table 4
Adjusted coefficients of determination. Table 5
Comparison of optimum results between DO and RBDO.
Items R2adj
Items Initial Optimum values by DO Optimum by RBDO
rm 0.9944 Design variables
rV 1 0.9773 V1 0.2 0.208 0.223
rV 2 0.9384 V2 0.4 0.451 0.482
rV 3 0.9600 V3 0.6 0.643 0.658
rV 4 0.9429 V4 0.8 0.834 0.830
rc 0.9885 Objective function (MPa)
rxaxial 0.9218 jrx-axial 252.60 213.05 224.12
max max j
442 Y.J. Noh et al. / Computational Materials Science 69 (2013) 435–442
Table 6
Reliability of DO and RBDO using Monte Carlo simulation.
Layer Reliability (%)
Initial DO
Metal 100 100
With V1 100 100
With V2 99.98 99.88
With V3 99.51 98.02
With V4 92.66 88.86
Ceramic 66.99 96.00
has violated probabilistic constraints, with reliability less than the
target, 97.725%, for the fourth layer and the ceramic layer, and the
deterministic optimum design also has one violated probabilistic
constraint for the fourth layer. All probabilistic constraints of the
RBDO optimum design are safe. The third and fourth layer seem
to have slightly violated constraints, but the RBDO optimum de-
signs are still acceptable because a small percentage of reliability
error can be occurred due to FORM approximation of constraint
functions and Monte Carlo simulation. In addition, comparing with
the reliability in the initial design, e.g. 66.9899% in the 4th layer,
the reliability at the RBDO design is substantially improved. Thus,
the RBDO optimum provides the most reliable volume fraction dis-
tribution of FGM composite.
6. Conclusion
FGM composites are widely used, because they reduce stress
concentration, which often occurs at the interface of classical bi-
material composites. However, the strength of stress concentration
depends on the volume fraction in each graded layer, so the opti-
mized volume fraction needs to minimize the stress concentration.
Even though the optimized volume fractions are numerically ob-
tained, the manufacturing techniques of FGM could not achieve
the target volume fraction distribution due to uncertainty in the
manufacturing process. To deal with this uncertainty, RBDO is car-
ried out in this paper using statistical information of the volume
fraction distributions. It has been observed from the numerical
example that the volume distribution obtained by RBDO has target
reliability such that the FGM composite does not fail. This research
is the first attempt to apply RBDO for the volume fraction optimi-
zation of FGM composite structure considering the uncertainty in
the manufacturing process. However, since the number of graded
layers and thickness of each layer are thought to affect the maxi-
mum thermal stress in FGM composite, the consideration of such
factors in RBDO deserves future study.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Pro-
RBDO gram through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF),
funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
99.99
99.97 (Grant No. 2010-0024148). The financial support for this work
97.20 through World Class 300 from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy
95.77 of Korea is also acknowledged.
95.55
97.35
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