Composite Sandwich Structure Optimization with Application to Satellite Components

摘要

Advanced design concepts and rigorous optimization methods are essential to address the conflicting and strin- gent design requirements of aerospace structures. The focus here is on the use of discrete optimization methods, specifically the genetic search method, for tailoring composite sandwich components of satellites. Failure modes induced by local instabilities associated with such composite sandwich constructions have been developed and used as design constraints in the optimization problem. A linear least-squares approximation is used in conjunction with the genetic search procedure to minimize the computational effort.