Session: 01-04-01: Advances in Aerospace Structures

Paper Number: 107956

107956 - Design of In-Plane and Thickness-Wise Functionally Graded Shells 

Functionally graded material (FGM) designs can outperform structures made of conventional materials due to the improved internal load distribution. However, the actual potency of FGM highly depends on the parametrization of the material distribution. Hence, the determination of the effective grading approaches suitable for different scenarios is highly important. This study compares the in-plane and thickness-wise grading strategies for the design of FGM shells. The considered structures comprise two materials, one that is relatively stiffer-heavier and another being softer-lighter. The proportion of the denser material is constrained not to exceed half of the total volume. The optimization task concerns maximizing the fundamental frequency as the objective function. The optimal results are obtained for various combinations of shell geometry and boundary conditions. The optimum results show that the effectiveness of the considered grading types notably depends on the analyzed case. The findings of this study can serve as a guideline for future studies investigating similar problems.

Presenting Author: Gokhan Serhat KU Leuven

Presenting Author Biography: Gokhan Serhat is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven since October 2022. Prior to his current position, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, where he joined in March 2019. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering (2018) from Koc University, where he worked as a Marie Curie early-stage research fellow. He also holds an M.Sc. degree in Computational Mechanics (Technical University of Munich, 2013) and a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (Middle East Technical University, 2011).

Dr. Gokhan Serhat has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He was awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship and a full Ph.D. scholarship at Koc University. He ranked first among the doctorate awardees at the Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering. His research interests include computational mechanics, numerical methods, structural dynamics, composite materials, and design optimization.

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