| Abstract: | To minimize the mass and increase the bearing failure load of composite doublelap bolted joints, a three-step optimization strategy including feasible region reduction,
optimization model decoupling and optimization was presented. In feasible region
reduction, the dimensions of the feasible design region were reduced by selecting dominant
design variables from numerous multilevel parameters by sensitivity analyses, and the
feasible regions of variables were reduced by influence mechanism analyses. In model
decoupling, the optimization model with a large number of variables was divided into
various sub-models with fewer variables by variance analysis. In the third step, the
optimization sub-models were solved one by one using a genetic algorithm, and the
modified characteristic curve method was adopted as the failure prediction method. Based
on the proposed optimization method, optimization of a double-lap single-bolt joint was
performed using the ANSYS® code. The results show that the bearing failure load increased
by 13.5% and that the mass decreased by 8.7% compared with those of the initial design of
the joint, which validated the effectiveness of the three-step optimization strategy. |
