OPTIMUM DESIGN OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE RECTANGULAR-PLATES WITH CUTOUTSUSING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Optimum design of the laminated composite rectangular plate with speci fied frequencies is attempted in the presence of elliptical cutouts. O rientation of the ellipse with respect to the reference axis, aspect r atio of the cutout, orientation of plies, thickness of plies and mater ial of the plies are used as design parameters with constraints on nat ural frequencies. As a first step, investigations of free vibration re sponse of composite rectangular plate in the presence of elliptical cu tout is studied and some typical results are presented. First-order sh ear deformation theory (FSDT) is used to account for the transverse sh ear stresses. Nine noded quadrilateral isoparametric element is used i n the finite element formation. Genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to identify the optimum variables. Numerical results are presented for re ctangular plates with simply supported edge conditions. The results sh ow that GA is a viable tool for optimum design of laminated composite plates with cutouts.