OPTIMUM DESIGN OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES WITH CUTOUTS USING A GENETIC ALGORITHM

Optimum design of the laminated composite plate is attempted in the pr esence of elliptical cutouts. Orientation of the ellipse with respect to the reference axis, aspect ratio of the cutout, orientation of plie s, thickness of plies and material of the plies are used as design par ameters with a constraint on natural frequencies. Thus an investigatio n of the free vibrational response of composite plates with an ellipti cal cutout is studied, and some results presented. First-order shear d eformation theory (FSDT) is used to account for the transverse shear s tresses. A nine noded quadrilateral isoparametric element is used in t he finite element formulation. A genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to locate the optimum. Numerical results are presented for square plates with simply supported and clamped edge conditions. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.