Print Email Facebook Twitter Effect of steering limit constraints on the performance of variable stiffness laminates Title Effect of steering limit constraints on the performance of variable stiffness laminates Author Peeters, D.M.J. (TU Delft Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics) Lozano, Gustavo Gonzalez (Airbus Group Innovations; Cranfield University) Abdalla, M.M. (TU Delft Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics) Date 2018-02-01 Abstract A method to optimise the fibre angle distribution of variable stiffness laminates is proposed. The proposed method integrates a fibre angle retrieval step with a fibre angle optimisation procedure. A multi-level approximation approach is used in combination with the method of successive approximations. First, fibre angle retrieval is done by approximating the structural responses based on the optimal stiffness distribution found using lamination parameters. The full fibre angle optimisation is done by updating the approximations based on the current stacking sequence. Next, the actual fibre paths are optimised taking into account the actual size of a tow, and the maximum size of any gap or overlap appearing. The paths are smoothed out using CATIA, and finally spline curves are found that can be sent to a fibre placement machine for manufacturing. It is shown for a bucking optimisation with a stiffness constraint that the number of finite element analyses reduces significantly by starting the optimisation from the optimal stiffness distribution rather than from a user-specified stacking sequence. Next, it is shown that updating the approximations also leads to considerable improvements over fibre angle retrieval. Similar promising results are obtained for a stress optimisation problem. Subject Lamination parametersManufacturabilityOptimisationVariable stiffness To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4da31917-5919-41dd-8ad7-40125110fb0e DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruc.2017.11.002 Embargo date 2020-01-04 ISSN 0045-7949 Source Computers & Structures, 196, 94-111 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 D.M.J. Peeters, Gustavo Gonzalez Lozano, M.M. Abdalla Files PDF FullPaper.pdf 30.69 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:4da31917-5919-41dd-8ad7-40125110fb0e/datastream/OBJ/view