Structural Optimization of Rotating Tapered Laminated Composite Plates

Laminated composite plates are widely used in various engineering applications. Tapering in composite structures is introduced by dropping off the plies to yield tailoring in structural properties to satisfy the demand where the structures need to be stiff at one location and flexible at the other location to achieve better strength and weight requirements. The stacking sequence of composite plays a major role in formulation of the stiffness and damping properties of the structure. Understanding their dynamic behaviors and identifying the optimal layout to yield the maximum natural frequency and damping factors are of much importance as they are often exposed with various dynamic environments. In this study, dynamic characterization of a rotating tapered laminated thick composite plate has been investigated using the finite element method by including the shear deformation effects. An optimal layout of the various configurations of rotating tapered composite plates with ply drop-off is investigated to maximize both natural frequencies and damping factor using the FE formulation and genetic algorithm to obtain the optimal ply sequence and orientation of the composite plates.