A numerical method based on genetic algorithms was introduced to characterize the grain-size distribution more effectively. This technique was proved significant particularly for multimodal size distributions, as was verified for samples from Korea Strait continental shelf. Sediment samples collected from the Korea Strait continental shelf revealed that $96\%$ of the grain-size distributions were multimodal. Therefore, the use of grain-size parameters was not the ideal method. As an alternative method, the decomposition of sue curves into elementary normal component curves was used. Means and standard deviations of 593 decomposed normal components were calculated by a numerical method from 268 size curves of Korea Strait sediments. The mean values of decomposed normal components showed peaks at $1~3phi;and;7~9phi$ size classes. The plot of mean and standard deviation values of the coarse fraction normal components on the map showed a characteristic areal distribution. The characteristic distribution was found to derive from underlying Pleistocene sediment on the basis of sea bottom geologic distribution of the area. The method of decomposition into normal components was found to be more effective than the analysis using traditional grain-size parameters in investigation of multimodal size distribution of Korea Strait shelf sediment.