OBJECT-ORIENTED APPROACH TO OPTIMIZE COMPOSITE LAMINATED PLATE STIFFNESS WITH DISCRETE PLY ANGLES

A system for designing the optimum stacking sequence combination of la minated composite plates using an object-oriented approach was present ed here. In this design system, a stacking sequence combination of a l aminated composite plate is optimized such that the actual strain unde r an applied load is reduced with the lowest ply number being subject to some empirical combinatorial restrictions on the stacking sequence. Two optimization approaches are provided here. In the first approach, the ply that most drastically reduces the actual strain of a composit e plate is stacked one by one on the laminate. This approach is called the sequential decision approach in this study. In the second approac h, the optimal solution to the stacking sequence problem was efficient ly obtained by the branch-and-bound procedure. By using these approach es, the optimized stacking sequences were successfully obtained.