A multi-scale approach for the optimum design of sandwich plates with honeycomb core. Part II: the optimisation strategy

Anita Catapano (1) , Marco Montemurro (1)

1 I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie de Bordeaux

This work deals with the problem of the optimum design of a sandwich panel. The design strategy that we propose is a numerical optimisation procedure that does not make any simplifying assumption to obtain a true global optimum configuration of the system. To face the design of the sandwich structure at both meso and macro scales, we use a two-level optimisation strategy: at the first level we determine the optimal geometry of the unit cell of the core together with the material and geometric parameters of the laminated skins, while at the second level we determine the optimal skins lay-up giving the geometrical and material parameters issued from the first level. The two-level strategy relies both on the use of the polar formalism for the description of the anisotropic behaviour of the laminates and on the use of a genetic algorithm as optimisation tool to perform the solution search. To prove its effectiveness, we apply our strategy to the least-weight design of a sandwich plate, satisfying several constraints: on the first buckling load, on the positive-definiteness of the stiffness tensor of the core, on the ratio between skins and core thickness and on the admissible moduli for the laminated skins.

Mots clés: Sandwich structures; Optimisation; Genetic algorithms; Buckling; Structural design; Composite materials

Domaines: Matériaux; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des structures [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des structures [physics.class-ph]

Anita Catapano, Marco Montemurro. A multi-scale approach for the optimum design of sandwich plates with honeycomb core. Part II: the optimisation strategy. Composite Structures, 2014, 118, pp.677-690. ⟨10.1016/j.compstruct.2014.07.058⟩. ⟨hal-01063071⟩