Optimal Design of Laminated Composite Plates Under Axial Compression

Abstract

The study is carried out for the optimum design of laminated fiber reinforced composite plates, subjected to multiple in-plane loadings. Angle-ply laminates with orthotropic laminae are considered. Thickness of plies and corresponding fiber orientations are incorporated as design variables. The constrained optimization problem is transformed into a series of unconstrained optimization problems, using an interior penalty function approach. The results have been obtained for different aspect ratios and uniform biaxial in-plane loading ratios. This study shows that the fiber orientations of the plies near mid-plane have little effect on the optimum design. There exists a particular fiber orientation angle for the over all thickness of laminate, which results in the optimum design for a plate of a given aspect ratio under a given set of loadings.