Optimizing the Design of Composite Panels using an Improved Genetic Algorithm

1. Abstract Composite materials are combinations of, at least, two organic or inorganic materials, working together to give the composite some desired properties. Composites are highly-used on industrial design [3]. Their light weight make them key elements to reduce weight and direct operating costs in some domains like aeronautics. Genetic algorithms are heuristic stochastic methods that explore a reduced set of tentative solutions, performing a guided search procedure that evaluates few solutions, in several orders of magnitude smaller than the whole search space. The dynamics in genetic algorithms provide optimal (or near-optimal) solutions to complex optimization problems when analytical techniques are not able to calculate them. This paper describes the results of applying several improvements to the standard genetic algorithm to the optimization of a stiffened composite panel subject to a set of shear and axial loads. The performance and characteristics of the proposed configurations are evaluated via nonlinear finite element simulation. The goal is to find the lightest configuration that keeps the principal strains under a given threshold. The proposed improvements significantly reduce both the weight and the number of analyses required for the optimization. 2. Keywords: composite laminate, genetic algorithms, stacking optimization