RELIABILITY CONSIDERATIONS IN COMPOSITE LAMINATE TAILORING

In this study, a structural synthesis procedure has been developed to tailor composite laminates to meet the reliability-based (ply) strengt h requirements and achieve desirable laminate responses. Specifically, the main thrust of the paper is to demonstrate how to integrate optim ization techniques in the probabilistic composite laminate tailoring p rocess. The question of reliability arises in fiber composite analysis and design because of the inherent scatter that is observed in the co nstituent (fiber and matrix) material properties during experimentatio n. Symmetric and asymmetric composite laminates subject to mechanical loadings are considered as application examples. These application exa mples illustrate the effectiveness and ease with which reliability con siderations can be integrated in the design optimization model for com posite laminate tailoring.