Optimization of laminated composites considering different failure criteria

The purpose of the present work is to analyse how different the optimal structures are when different first ply failure criterion are considered in the optimization of laminated composites. Two problems are solved: the minimum weight and the minimum material cost of laminated plates subjected to in-plane loads. The failure criterion is taken into account by means of constraints introduced in the optimization problem. Three different failure criteria are tested independently: maximum stress, Tsai–Wu and the Puck failure criterion (PFC). Emphasis is given to the PFC as it appears to agree better with practical observations. The design variables are the ply orientations, the number of layers and the layer material, and the optimization problem is solved by a genetic algorithm (GA). The results show that optimal structures highly differ when different failure criterion are considered and that none of the failure criteria is always the most or the least conservative when different load conditions are applied.