Simultaneous geometrical and material optimal design of hybrid elastomer/composite sandwich plates

N Le Maoût,J Bégué,E Verron

doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2010.10.008

Abstract

The paper presents the complete optimization of a hybrid elastomer/composite sandwich plate structure: design variables consist in the total number of layers of the structure, their respective thicknesses, their fiber orientations, the position(s) of the viscoelastic core(s) and the stacking sentence. The damping of the hybrid structure is calculated by the Method of Strain Energy (MSE). The constrained optimization maximizes the damping loss factor using the linear search algorithm. As an example, the method is applied to a simple structure and the results demonstrate the capabilities of our tool.

Highlights

Nowadays, fiber-reinforced composites are widely used for automotive and aerospace parts because of their high stiffness, light weight, and for their good fatigue and corrosion properties as compared to metals
The definition of the best hybrid material is difficult because the dynamic properties of hybrid elastomer/composite depend on a large number of quantities such as the stacking sequence of the plies, the mechanical properties of the elastomer, . . . [3,4,5]
It is due to the choice of the static stiffness tests in the optimization process: as only two directions are considered for the tensile and bending tests, the stiffness requirements of the constraints lead to these orientations

Summary

Introduction

Fiber-reinforced composites are widely used for automotive and aerospace parts because of their high stiffness, light weight, and for their good fatigue and corrosion properties as compared to metals. In order to improve the damping properties of composites, the most common method is passive and consists in sticking an elastomeric viscoelastic patch (often combined with constrained metallic layer) in some well-chosen locations of the structure [1] This solution is quite efficient but it increases both weight and cost of the structure. An a priori solution consists in inserting interlaminar damping layer(s) in the composite material during the design of the structure [2,3] Such a solution necessitates the determination of the more relevant position(s) and thickness(es) of damping layer(s) in the composite in order to maximize the modal loss factors without degrading the mechanical properties and increasing too much the total weight of the structure. These studies have been limited to a small number of design variables such as thicknesses, ply angles or shear modulus of the elastomer layer(s)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion