Multi-Objective Optimization of Laminated Composite Materials with Weight and Reliability Objective Functions

Uncertainty in the structural and environmental properties is an inevitable issue in design of the structures. Probabilistic structural design optimization helps to take these uncertainties into account. In thispaper, multi-objective weight and reliabilityoptimization of laminated composite materials under in-plane loading is addressed. Since design of the anisotropic laminated composite structures is very sensitive to changes in loading and fiber orientation,optimization of such structures considering reliability index as an objective is an important problem to deal with. Furthermore, it has always been costly and time consuming to implement an optimization algorithm including evaluation of probability of failure. Therefore, in this work a Multi-Objective Optimization algorithm is employed to meet both targets with fewer computational procedures. HereParticle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is applied for the optimization process as the first objective. Also, as the second objective reliability analysis is performed using Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) - evaluating andreporting the probability of failure. The algorithm is implemented for a glass-epoxy composite. The results of this article are compared with prior studies in reliability based design optimization of laminatedcomposites. It is shown that this approach is more efficient in comparison with traditional reliability based design optimization methods.