Simultaneous material and topology optimization of composite laminates

Abstract

This work introduces a topology optimization method for the simultaneous design of fiber reinforcement and spatial layout of rectangular laminated plates within a three-dimensional design region. Geometry projection techniques are employed to efficiently perform the analysis using a non-conforming mesh. Laminates are assumed to be homogeneous through their thickness and a discrete set of fiber orientations is considered for each laminate. The fiber reinforcement design thus consists of optimizing the volume fraction of each orientation in each laminate. Several compliance minimization examples demonstrate the validity and efficacy of the method. The results demonstrate that substantial performance may be gained by optimizing the layup of each laminate while simultaneously optimizing the layout of these laminates in space.