Abstract

Cylindrical composite structures are common in various industries. Some of the most demanding applications, however, are in space structures. The requirements for load carrying capability, stiffness and thermal expansion can be met, while at the same time minimizing mass, through the selection of materials, layer orientations and thicknesses of the individual layers in a composite laminate. Hence, optimization tasks involving layered composites become challenging owing to the number of design variables involved.
In this paper a stiffened cylindrical structure for a launcher application is optimized with respect to structural stability, laminate load response and failure analyses. Several types of cylinders (with and without stiffeners) are considered and optimized using different lay-up parameterizations. Results for the best designs are presented and discussed. The design environment utilizes optimization features of modeFRONTIER along with composites design capabilities of ESAComp.