Buckling optimization of composite panels via lay-up tables

Abstract

Commonly, composite panel optimization is based on a multi-level strategy. An important step of the strategy is to optimize the stacking sequence. In this paper, we are interested in this step through lay-up table optimization towards buckling. A lay-up table is used to define the stacking sequence associated with each integer thickness of the skin and to insure lay-up continuity between different thicknesses. A genetic algorithm performs the optimization of the lay-up table with a chromosome coding of lay-up table meeting directly the requirements of lay-up continuity between different thicknesses. The fitness function used in this study is a multi-objective one: - The first objective concerns percentages coming from the first level thickness law. - The second one concerns buckling behavior - And the last one deals with limitation of inter-laminar shear stresses. Two examples illustrate the ability of this methodology to provide optimized lay-up tables.