21st Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 13-18 September, 1998
Paper ICAS-98-4.7.5

INVESTIGATION OF SHAPE OPTIMISATION TECHNIQUES FOR THE DESIGN OF PLATES WITH CUT-OUTS

Thomson R. S., Scott M. L.*, Searl A.**, Heller M.**
Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures Limited, Australia; *Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia; **Aeronautical and Maritine Research Laboratory, Australia

Keywords: shape optimisation, design of plates, cut-outs

The optimisation of holes in both isotropic and laminated plates under a variety of loading conditions has been investigated using the design sensitivity method of MSCINASTRAN. A least squares objective function was shown to successfully produce a constant stress around the hole boundary in isotropic cases for uniform and non-uniform biaxial load cases. For non-uniform biaxial loading, it was found that a range of harmonic holes exists which depend on the constraints imposed. The optimisation of holes in laminated composite plates showed that the optimum hole shape depends on the degree of orthotropy. Quasi-isotropic laminates produced holes of similar shape to the isotropic case while laminates without fibres in the primary loading direction produced unexpected shapes.

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