Fast procedure for Non-uniform optimum design of stiffened shells under buckling constraint

For tailoring the non-uniform axial compression, each sub-panel of stiffened shells should be designed separately to achieve a high load-carrying efficiency. Motivated by the challenge caused by numerous variables and high computational cost, a fast procedure for the minimum weight design of non-uniform stiffened shells under buckling constraint is proposed, which decomposes a hyper multi-dimensional problem into a hierarchical optimization with two levels. To facilitate the post-buckling optimization, an efficient equivalent analysis model of stiffened shells is developed based on the Numerical Implementation of Asymptotic Homogenization Method. In particular, the effects of non-uniform load, internal pressure and geometric imperfections are taken into account during the optimization. Finally, a typical fuel tank of launch vehicle is utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure, and detailed comparison with other optimization methodologies is made.