Optimum design of anti-buckling behavior of graphite/epoxy laminated composites by differential evolution and simulated annealing method

Stacking sequence design and optimization of 64 layered symmetric-balance graphite/epoxy laminated composite have been performed. The optimization problems aim to find the optimum stacking sequence maximizing the critical buckling load by single objective optimization approach. Differential Evolution (DE) and Simulated Annealing (SA) optimization algorithms are proposed to solve the problems. The effect of the aspect ratios (a/b) and in-plane biaxial compressive loading ratios (N_x/N_y) on critical buckling load are investigated. In order to see the effect of discrete increments of fiber orientation angle on critical buckling load, 1°, 5°, 15°, 30° and 45° fiber angle increments are also considered. The results show that (i) the proposed algorithms DE and SA exhibit comparable performance in terms of critical buckling load when compared to Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Generalized Pattern Search Algorithm (GPSA), (ii) DE and SA find distinct stacking sequence configurations in terms of buckling load for the same laminated structure design problems.