Session: 01-01-01: General Topics of Aerospace Structures 1

Paper Number: 162596

162596 - Buckling Optimization of Variable Stiffness Isotropic Panels 

The emergence of additive manufacturing technology has provided flexibility in designing structures allowing for spatially tailored material properties and geometry. This capability significantly improves the performance of structures in aerospace where buckling and weight are key design drivers. In this study, we developed a semi-analytical method for buckling optimization for panels with spatial variation in thickness. Multi-objective optimization (MOO) studies were conducted on isotropic panels to improve buckling load while maintaining or reducing weight. The primitive results from the optimization resulted in above $30\%$ improvement in the buckling performance of panels for constant weight.

The motivation of this study is to explore the stiffness variation design space with better buckling performance than their constant stiffness counterparts. The study aims to generate a Pareto front of designs relating buckling load and volume of panels, where specific designs can be picked based on improved buckling load or reduced volume depending on the design criteria. As aforementioned, the flexural rigidity of the panel depends on the structure's stiffness; this study investigates the effect of direct stiffness variation on the buckling performance of the structure.

This study is divided into two phases, the first phase deals with the calculation of eigenvalue buckling load for an isotropic panel under uniaxial compressive loading. The second phase is to optimize the distribution of stiffness across the panel for the best performance in buckling while reducing the overall weight.

Presenting Author: Paul Davidson University of Texas at Arlington

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Paul Davidson is an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. With support from industry, and DoD, his laboratory and research spans the areas of material, design and computational methods for manufacturing, durability, and damage tolerance of composites.