IMPROVED GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR MINIMUM THICKNESS COMPOSITE LAMINATE DESIGN

The use of a genetic algorithm for the minimum thickness design of com posite laminated plates is explored. A previously developed genetic al gorithm for laminate design is thoroughly revised and improved, by inc orporating knowledge of the physics of the problem into the genetic al gorithm. Constraints are accounted for by combining fixed and progress ive penalty functions. Improved selection, mutation, and permutation o perators are proposed. The use of an operator called scaling mutation that projects designs toward the feasible domain is investigated. The improvements in the genetic algorithm are shown to reduce the average price of a genetic search by more than 50%.