Automation of optimal laminate design

• Published in: Australian journal of mechanical engineering Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 119 - 126
• Main Authors: Coates, T, Smith, A, Emanuel, M, Peterson, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.01.2008
• Subjects: Airplanes; Blending; Composite; Composite materials; Design; Design and construction; engineering automation; genetic algorithm; heuristics; laminate; Laminated materials; manufacturing constraints; Materials; Mathematical models; optimization; Structural design
• ISSN: 1448-4846; 2204-2253
• DOI: 10.1080/14484846.2008.11464566

Composite laminates are in widespread use in the aerospace industry. As well as satisfying strength and stiffness criteria, the final laminate design has to be manufacturable in terms of compatibility between adjacent panels, thus introducing conflicting constraints on the allowed laminate stacking sequences. An attempt to automate the laminate design process is described in this paper. The method uses a mixture of a genetic algorithm and heuristics to satisfy the various design and manufacturing constraints. Multiple zones are allowed, where each zone defines a panel together with a set of applied loads. Guide laminates and a blending methodology allow each zone to share common plies. This creates ply continuity across the structure, and avoids the scenario seen in other laminate optimisation tools where each optimised zone contains unrelated laminates that are not practical from a manufacturing perspective.