A constraint satisfaction programming approach for computing manufacturable stacking sequences

•An algorithm is presented to generate stacking sequences which satisfy the manufacturing rules.•The manufacturing rules are the blending and the design rules.•The combinatorial nature of the problem is adressed using a constraint satisfaction approach.•The proposed algorithm can handle complex study cases which cannot be handled with the existing methods.•A case study shows that this algorithm can be used by the mechanical designers to define the manfacturable design space.

An algorithm is proposed to generate stacking sequences which comply with the requirements of the composite manufacturers. These rules are the blending and the design rules. The novelty of the proposed algorithm is that it can handle a general blending scheme, where a stacking sequence can be blended with other stacking sequences and it can also be the base of others. This algorithm can have two purposes: generating a manufacturable structure given the results of a preliminary design or defining a design space of a composite structure in a design process.