Optimum design of composite laminates for minimum thickness

In this study, an optimization procedure is proposed to minimize thickness (or weight) of laminated composite plates subject to in-plane loading. Fiber orientation angles and layer thickness are chosen as design variables. Direct search simulated annealing (DSA), which is a reliable global search algorithm, is used to search the optimal design. Static failure criteria are used to determine whether load bearing capacity is exceeded for a configuration generated during the optimization process. In order to avoid spurious optimal designs, both the Tsai–Wu and the maximum stress criteria are employed to check static failure. Numerical results are obtained and presented for different loading cases.