Stacking Sequence Optimization Approach for Suppressing Out-of-Plane Thermal Deformation of CFRP Laminate because of Fiber Orientation Error

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is regarded as a suitable material for large, high-precision reflectors (mirrors) used in high-resolution space observatories because of its high specific elasticity and low coefficient of thermal expansion. However, it was made clear that non-negligible out-of-plane thermal deformation is generated in CFRP reflectors because of fiber orientation errors occurring during manufacturing. In this study, first, a method was developed to evaluate the standard deviation of the magnitude of curvature of the CFRP plate because of fiber orientation errors. Then, the standard deviation of curvature was minimized by optimizing the stacking sequence of the laminate using a genetic algorithm. Stacking sequence optimization mitigated the effect of fiber orientation errors, indicating that this is an effective method for suppressing the out-of-plane thermal deformation of CFRP laminates. Moreover, the out-of-plane thermal deformations of CFRP laminates with a quasi-isotropic and the optimum stacking sequence because of representative fiber orientation errors were measured and it was demonstrated that the out-of-plane thermal deformation was suppressed by applying optimum stacking sequence.