Practical design of tapered composite structures using the manufacturing cost concept

The tapered composite laminates are optimized by a patchwise layup design method. In this approach, the weight of tapered composite laminates under the strength constraints was minimized. For this purpose, stacking sequences and the number of plies were optimized. The design variables were the discrete ply angles such as 0 degrees, +/-45 degrees, and 90 degrees and the number of plies in each patch. The design results are compared with the uniform thickness laminates. It showed that the optimized layup could considerably reduce total weight of the composite laminates. Also, a new design concept - manufacturing cost - for the expenditure of manufacturing such as time and labor is proposed. The composite laminates designed by the consideration of manufacturing cost were more practical than those designed by only strength constraints. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.