Paper number 180

OPTIMUM DESIGN OF FILAMENT WOUND MULTIZONAL COMPOSITE SHELLS

E.V. Morozov

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa

Summary

The present paper deals with the development of a dedicated optimum design procedure for the multizonal filament wound composite shells of minimum mass. The composite shells of revolution with the specified geometrical shape are considered. It is assumed that the filament wound shell consists of a number of helical layers of various lengths. The set of design parameters includes the total number of layers, coefficients of reinforcement density for each layer, reinforcement orientation angles, and locations of the starting points for helical winding. The design technique is based on the sequential optimising algorithm specifically developed for the problem discussed. Manufacturing constraints are taking into account and the synthesis of laminated composite shell is performed. The numerical results obtained for symmetrically loaded composite shell demonstrate the possibility of a significant mass reduction.

Keywords

optimum design, filament winding, reinforcement orientation, multizonal composite shells, optimum control theory.