Composite sandwich structure optimization with application to satellite components

Abstract

Advanced design concepts and rigorous optimization methods are essential to address the conflicting and stringent 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. Results of this study indicate that, for large-scale design optimization problems, the number of function evaluations required by this implementation is high and that more robust and alternate approximation concepts are necessary to minimize the overall computational effort.