A general optimization strategy for composite sandwich structures

Abstract

An original strategy for the design of large-scale composite sandwich structures is developed. Such structures are typical of launcher and spacecraft structures, but the methodology remains applicable to any thin-walled sandwich structure (such as aircraft fuselage panels or watercraft hulls). The method hinges on multi-step strategies devised for variable-stiffness laminates. Indeed, laminate optimization problems corresponds to large combinatorial design spaces and their efficient approximate solutions often combine continuous relaxation and metaheuristics. Typically, the first step consists of a gradientbased optimization that handles the large number of variables with a continuous representation of the composite mechanical behavior. In our work, this continuous representation is adapted to the specific features of laminated sandwich composites. In particular, we modeled the dependency of the material transverse shear stiffness on the F.-

Skin Panel Optimization of the Common Research Model Wing Using Sandwich Composites

“…The optimization studies in this paper assume that a continuous core thickness is available, as considered for instance in [35]. The stacking sequence retrieval is thus decoupled to a retrieval of the facesheet laminate from the lamination parameters, together with a given core thickness.…”

“…Practical experience shows that their benefits come alongside a number of unique engineering challenges, which must be carefully considered in realistic designs [13]. The potential advantages and challenges have motivated a wide range of research covering topics such as characterization of failure modes [14][15][16], development of modelling strategies [17,18] and on optimization of sandwich composites [10][11][12][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Some of the relevant literature pertaining to the latter have been discussed further.…”

“…In the paper, a sandwich beam is optimized for maximum load-carrying ability subjected to various structural and feasibility constraints. Another recent and relevant study to be mentioned is Irisarri et al [35] who propose a strategy to optimize sandwich composites using a three-step approach: a gradient-based optimization in the first step using lamination parameters, an evolutionary algorithm in the second step to obtain the facesheet laminates and a third optimization step to overcome infeasibilities in the design arising out of the stiffness variations between the first and second step. The approach is applied to the design of a generic dual-launch spacecraft system.…”

Stacking sequence optimisation of an aircraft wing skin

“…Lamination (IJsselmuiden 2011;Setoodeh et al 2006;Liu et al 2019;Ijsselmuiden et al 2008;Irisarri et al 2021) and polar (Montemurro et al 2012b(Montemurro et al , 2018 parameters have been the two main alternative formulations used to describe the stiffness of each patch in the structure. Heuristic algorithms (Liu et al 2010;IJsselmuiden et al 2009;Bruyneel et al 2014;Jing et al 2015) are usually employed in the second stage of the process.…”

Generic stacks and application of composite rules for the detailed sizing of laminated structures

“…Usually, lamination parameters [15] are employed to model the stiffness properties of the laminate. Many researchers [16,17,18] have used a gradient-based optimisation exploiting lamination parameters and a lot of work has been conducted to determine their feasible design space [19], enforce composite design guidelines [20,21] and strength requirements [22,23]. The reason for their wide acceptance is that they provide a compact formulation for the properties of a structural zone with a maximum of 12 design variables, in the most general case, plus an additional design variable for the thickness of the zone.…”