Optimum stacking sequence design of laminates using a hybrid PSO-SA method

Stacking sequence optimization of laminated composite materials subjected to in-plane forces and bending moments for minimum weight is addressed using a hybrid method based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) and simulated annealing (SA) methods. The proposed hybrid method uses SA as a local search mechanism to improve convergence behavior of PSO. Layer thickness and fiber orientation angle of each ply group were defined as discrete variables and the laminate effective engineering constants and failure stresses were specified as constraints. Moreover, satisfaction of some composite design rules for reducing coupling effects and improving stiffness and strength of the laminate have been taken into consideration. A combination of a specific feasible-guiding strategy and dynamic penalty function was integrated to the solution procedure for handling constraints. Numerical examples are included to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed solution procedure. The results of this research show that the proposed PSO-SA hybrid algorithm can reliably and effectively be used for composite weight optimization problems subjected to a variety of constraints.