Abstract
A concept of a layerwise optimization (LO) approach, previously proposed by the author, is extended to be combined with the finite element method (FEM) and this combined approach for structural optimization, named LO-FEM approach, is demonstrated to obtain the optimum performance of symmetrically laminated composite plates. Design variables are taken to be the fiber orientation angles in all K layers. This usually causes a rapid increase in computation time due to the search for optimum solutions in the K dimensional space. The LO makes it possible, however, that this multi-dimensional optimization problem reduces into only K times repetition of onedimensional search. In the FEM formulation, the stiffness matrix is modified to be suited for the LO procedure. The numerical examples show that the LO-FEM approach is a quite effective tool to obtain the minimum deflection in the bending problem and the maximum frequency in the vibration problem.
