Composite Structures 54 (2001) 389±393

www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Multiobjective design of laminated plates for maximum

stability using the ®nite element method
M. Walker *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CADENCE (Center for Advanced Materials, Design & Prototyping Research),
Technikon Natal, P.O. Box 953, Durban 4001, South Africa

Abstract
Finite element solutions are presented for the optimal multiobjective design of symmetrically laminated rectangular plates subject
to a combination of simply supported, clamped and free boundary conditions. The design objective is the maximisation of the
biaxial buckling load and resonance frequency by determining the ®bre orientation optimally with the e€ects of bending±twisting
coupling taken into account. The ®nite element method coupled with an optimisation routine is employed in analysing and opti-
mising the laminated plate designs. The e€ect of boundary conditions and bending±twisting coupling on the optimal ply angles and
the buckling load are numerically studied. In addition, the multiobjective results are also compared to single objective design
results. Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Laminated plates; Finite element method; Multiobjective design

1. Introduction and determining the optimal angles to maximise a

Laminated composite materials are used with in-
creasing frequency in various technical applications,
particularly in the ®elds of automotive, aerospace and
marine engineering. This is primarily due to the high
speci®c strength and sti€ness values that these materials
o€er. Structures composed of composite materials often
contain components which may be modeled as rectan-
gular plates. A common type of composite plate is the
symmetrically laminated angle ply con®guration which
avoids strength reducing bending±stretching e€ects by
virtue of mid-plane symmetry. These plates quite often
are subjected to in-plane loads which may cause buck-
ling. In addition, vibration can be problematic when the
excitation frequency coincides with the plate's resonance
frequency. Such loadings may occur at di€erent times
under in-service conditions, necessitating a design ap-
proach which is capable of taking into account these
various loading conditions.
Optimal design of composite plates is necessary to
realise the full potential of ®bre-reinforced materials.
The overall structural performance of such plates can be
improved by using the ply angles as design variables,
*
Tel.: +27-31-204-2116; fax: +27-31-204-2139.
E-mail address: walker@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za (M. Walker).
multiobjective performance index. A large amount of
research has been carried out into the buckling [1±7] or
resonance frequency response [8±12] of laminated plates
by numerous workers, but optimal designs involving a
range of loading conditions do not appear to have been
considered before. The objective of the present paper is
to show that designs can be obtained which will produce
laminates with higher load carrying capacity under all
in-plane loading conditions. The design optimisation
involving more than one objective can be handled by a
multiobjective approach leading to designs which are
balanced and satisfactory from an overall strength
viewpoint.
One phenomenon associated with symmetric angle-
ply con®gurations is the occurrence of bending±twisting
coupling which may cause signi®cantly di€erent results
as compared to cases in which this coupling is exactly
zero. The e€ect of bending±twisting coupling becomes
even more pronounced for laminates with few layers.
Due to this coupling, closed-form solutions cannot be
obtained for any of the boundary conditions and this
situation led to neglecting bending±twisting coupling in
several studies involving the optimisation of symmetric
laminates under buckling or vibrational loads. In actual
fact, closed-form solutions for symmetric laminates are
not available even for the simpli®ed models where this
coupling is neglected except if the boundary conditions

0263-8223/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 6 3 - 8 2 2 3 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 1 4 - 3
390 M. Walker / Composite Structures 54 (2001) 389±393

are simply supported all around. The present study X

n
adopts a numerical approach to include the e€ect of P…u† ˆ PSr …u†; …1†
bending±twisting coupling and to obtain the optimal rˆ1

multiobjective design solutions for a variety of boundary where P and PSr are potential energies of the plate and
conditions. the element, respectively, and u is the displacement
The present study deals with the optimal design of vector. Using the same shape functions associated with
biaxially loaded laminated plates subject to ferent node i …i ˆ 1; 2; . . . ; n†, Si …x; y†, for interpolating the
combinations of free, simply supported and clamped variables in each element, we can write
edges for a maximum weighted combination of buckling Xn
load and resonance frequency. The study is complicated uˆ Si …x; y†ui ; …2†
because the e€ects of bending±twisting coupling are in- iˆ1
cluded in the procedure. The ®nite element formulation where ui is the value of the displacement vector corre-
which is used in the present study is based on Mindlin sponding to node i, and is given by
type theory for laminated composite plates. This mul- n oT
…i† …i† …i†
tiobjective study illustrates that improved buckling and u ˆ u0 ; v0 ; w0 ; w…i†
x ; w…i†
y : …3†
resonance performance can be obtained from plates
which are designed in this fashion. The multiobjective The static buckling problem reduces to a generalised
results are also compared to single objective design eigenvalue problem of the conventional form, viz.
results. …‰KŠ ‡ k‰KG Š†fug ˆ 0; …4†
where ‰KŠ is the sti€ness matrix and ‰KG Š is the initial
stress matrix. The lowest eigenvalue of the homogeneous
2. Finite element formulation system (4) yields the buckling load.
The free vibration problem also reduces to a gener-
Consider a symmetrically laminated rectangular plate alised eigenvalue problem of the conventional form, viz.
of length a, width b and thickness H which consists of n
…‰CŠ ‡ w2 ‰GŠ†ff g ˆ 0; …5†
orthotropic layers with ®bre angles hk , k ˆ 1; 2; . . . ; K, as
shown in Fig. 1 The plate is de®ned in the Cartesian where ‰CŠ is the sti€ness matrix and ‰GŠ is the mass
coordinates x, y and z with axes x and y lying on the matrix in the case of free vibrations, and [12]
middle surface of the plate. The plate is subjected to T
ff g ˆ fwmn ; fxmn ; fymn ; gxmn ; gymn ; u0mn ; u0mn g …6†
biaxial compressive forces Nx and Ny in the x and y di-
rections, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1 and is free to with m and n being the half-wave numbers. The lowest
vibrate. Plates with these characteristics are commonly eigenvalue of the homogeneous system (5) yields the
known as symmetric angle-ply laminates. resonance frequency.
Let the region S of the plate be divided into n sub- Lastly, the following non-dimensionalised quantities
regions Sr …Sr 2 S; r ˆ 1; 2; . . . ; n† such that are de®ned:
Ncr w
N ˆ ; F ˆ …7†
N0 w0
for critical buckling strength, and resonance frequency,
respectively. In Eq. (7) the subscript `0' denotes the
values of Ncr and w for a …0°=0°=


=0°†sym laminate.

3. Optimal design problem

The objective of the design optimisation problem is to

maximise the weighted sum of the critical buckling load
Ncr and resonance frequency w for a given laminate
thickness H by optimally determining the ®bre orienta-
tion hk ˆ … 1†k‡1 h for k 6 K=2 and hk ˆ … 1†k h for
k P K=2 ‡ 1. Let Nx ˆ N and Ny ˆ kN , where 0 6 k 6 1
is the proportionality constant.
The Design Index (DI) to be optimised is thus given
as

Fig. 1. Geometry and loading of the laminated plate.

DI ˆ l1 F  …h† ‡ l2 N  …h† …8†
 M. Walker / Composite Structures 54 (2001) 389±393
with l1 , l2 P 0, l1 ‡ l2 ˆ 1, and the  symbol denoting
the non-dimensionalised values de®ned in Eq. (7).
F  …h† and N  …h† are determined from the ®nite ele-
ment solution of the eigenvalue problems given by Eqs.
(5) and (4). The optimisation procedure involves the
stages of evaluating the buckling load F  …h† and N  …h†
for a given h and improving the ®bre orientation to
maximise DI. Thus, the computational solution consists
of successive stages of analysis and optimisation until a
convergence is obtained and the optimal angle hopt is
determined within a speci®ed accuracy. In the optimi-
sation stage, the Golden Section [13] method is em-
ployed.
4. Numerical results
Numerical results are given for a typical T300/5208
graphite/epoxy material with E1 ˆ 181 GPa, E2 ˆ
10:3 GPa, G12 ˆ 7:17 GPa, m12 ˆ 0:28 and q ˆ
1600 kg=m3 . The symmetric plate is constructed of four
equal thickness layers with h1 ˆ h2 ˆ h3 ˆ h4 ˆ h
and the thickness ratio is speci®ed as H =b ˆ 0:01. Dif-
ferent combinations of free (F), simply supported (S)
and clamped (C) boundary conditions are implemented
at the four edges of the plate. In particular, ®ve di€erent
combinations are studied, namely, (F,S,F,S), (F,S,C,S),
(S,S,S,S), (C,S,C,S) and (C,C,C,C), where the ®rst letter
refers to the ®rst plate edge, and the others follow in the
anti-clockwise direction as shown in Fig. 1.
The dependence of the Design Index DI on the ®bre
angle is investigated for the ®ve cases of boundary
conditions in Fig. 2 for a=b ˆ 1, k ˆ 1 and l2 ˆ 0:5.
Boundary condition Case 4 (C,S,C,S) gives the highest
Design Index, with a value of 1.75 and hopt ˆ 54:7°,
while that for (S,S,S,S) has hopt ˆ 45°. Similarly, Fig. 3
illustrates the e€ect of the weighting factor l2 on DI for
a square plate with biaxial (k ˆ 1) loading. In this case,
Fig. 2. E€ect of the boundary conditions on ®bre angle for square
plates with k ˆ 1 and l2 ˆ 0:5.
391
Fig. 3. E€ect of the weighting ratio l2 on the ®bre angle for (S,S,S,S)
and (C,C,C,C) square plates with k ˆ 1.
(S,S,S,S) and (C,C,C,C) boundary conditions are im-
plemented along the plate edges.
It is clear that the maximum Design Index for a given
boundary condition and aspect ratio occurs at a speci®c
value of the ®bre angle (referred to as the optimal ®bre
angle), and this value can be several times higher than
the DI at other ®bre angles. This fact emphasises the
importance of carrying out optimisation in design work
of this nature to obtain the best performance of ®bre
composite plates.
Table 1 gives the optimal con®gurations of laminated
plates ranging in size from a=b ˆ 0:5 to a=b ˆ 2, for the
®ve boundary condition cases, with l2 ˆ 0:5 and k ˆ 1.
Generally, the Design Index decreases as the plate aspect
ratio increases, while the optimal ®bre angle increases. It
is apparent that the e€ect of the boundary conditions on
DI was limited, for plates with a given aspect ratio, but
this was not the case for the optimal ®bre angles. For
example, with a=b ˆ 0:5, 4:40 6 DI 6 4:78 (i.e. a vari-
ance of approximately 8.6%), but 18:9° 6 hopt 6 26:5°
(which is a variance of about 40%).
Table 2 shows the in¯uence of the loading ratio k on
(S,S,S,S) and (C,C,C,C) plates with l2 ˆ 0:5. As before,
DI generally decreases as the aspect ratio increases,
while the opposite is true of the optimal ®bre angle.
Also, as k increases, so generally does hopt , with no clear
trend in evidence with regard the Design Index.
Table 3 illustrates the in¯uence of the weighting factor
l2 on (S,S,S,S) plates with k ˆ 1. As before, DI decreases
as the aspect ratio increases, except for l2 ˆ 1 (i.e. pure
buckling), where the reverse is true, and DI increases
with increasing a=b. Also, generally speaking, as l2 in-
creases, so too does DI (except with l2 ˆ 1) and hopt .
Lastly, a trade-o€ curve is shown in Fig. 4, with the
values of N  plotted against those of F  as l2 varies from
0 to 1. The curve is given for a square (S,S,S,S) plate
with k ˆ 1, and it can be seen that at l2 ˆ 0, the value of
DI is the value of F  as predicted in Table 3 (where
392 M. Walker / Composite Structures 54 (2001) 389±393

Table 1
In¯uence of boundary conditions and aspect ratio on the design index and optimal ®bre angle with l2 ˆ 0:5, and k ˆ 1
a=b S,S,S,S F,S,F,S F,S,C,S C,S,C,S C,C,C,C
DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt
0.5 4.78 19.2 4.65 19.2 4.60 18.9 4.66 19.2 4.40 26.5
0.6 3.14 21.1 3.03 21.1 3.03 21.1 3.03 21.1 2.29 33.5
0.7 2.31 26.7 2.26 26.3 2.26 26.3 2.41 63.6 1.18 31.2
0.8 2.01 26.7 1.92 26.3 1.93 26.6 2.31 61.7 2.00 30.1
0.9 1.49 37.3 1.42 23.2 1.18 17.7 1.89 58.3 1.44 31.3
1.0 1.22 45.0 1.21 19.2 1.18 19.2 1.75 54.7 1.18 54.7
1.25 0.94 65.6 1.18 24.5 1.18 24.5 1.42 62.8 1.42 57.7
1.5 0.88 67.1 0.47 21.1 0.50 55.5 1.20 58.3 0.72 55.5
2.0 0.76 63.6 0.30 28.2 0.38 75.9 0.81 58.6 0.57 55.5

Table 2
In¯uence of loading ratio and aspect ratio on the design index and optimal ®bre angle for plates with S,S,S,S or C,C,C,C boundary conditions and
l2 ˆ 0:5
a=b kˆ0 k ˆ 0:5 kˆ1 kˆ0 k ˆ 0:5 kˆ1
S,S,S,S S,S,S,S S,S,S,S C,C,C,C C,C,C,C C,C,C,C

DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt

0.5 4.84 1.9 4.80 13.4 4.78 19.2 4.84 1.9 4.72 13.4 4.40 26.5
0.6 2.66 11.0 2.77 11.0 3.14 21.1 2.15 35.4 2.86 21.1 2.29 33.5
0.7 2.04 7.9 2.14 13.1 2.31 26.7 1.66 29.2 1.06 31.2 1.18 31.2
0.8 1.75 26.3 1.74 42.3 2.01 26.7 1.48 39.4 1.83 26.3 2.00 30.1
0.9 1.31 37.3 1.31 37.3 1.49 37.3 0.93 29.2 1.28 12.2 1.44 31.3
1.0 1.28 44.4 1.28 44.4 1.22 45.0 1.06 44.4 1.02 60.6 1.18 54.7
1.25 0.92 47.1 1.45 59.3 0.94 65.6 0.63 42.8 1.17 50.9 1.42 57.7
1.5 0.71 42.3 0.83 59.8 0.88 67.1 1.09 35.4 0.60 55.5 0.72 55.5
2.0 0.42 43.5 0.66 55.5 0.76 63.6 0.28 55.2 0.46 55.2 0.57 55.5

Table 3
In¯uence of the weighting factor and aspect ratio on the design index and optimal ®bre angle for S,S,S,S plates with k ˆ 1
a=b l2 ˆ 0 l2 ˆ 0:25 l2 ˆ 0:5 l2 ˆ 0:75 l2 ˆ 1
DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt DI hopt
0.5 4.66 71.7 5.12 21.1 4.78 19.2 5.11 23.2 1.31 24.8
0.6 2.69 73.8 2.92 29.6 3.14 21.1 3.37 21.1 1.34 23.2
0.7 2.12 2.96 2.23 44.4 2.31 26.7 2.51 22.3 1.30 21.3
0.8 1.93 44.4 1.94 37.3 2.01 26.7 2.04 26.3 1.33 27.4
0.9 1.29 79.1 1.36 60.6 1.49 37.3 1.62 37.3 1.42 39.9
1.0 1.18 71.7 1.24 55.5 1.22 45.0 1.45 44.4 1.52 45.0
1.25 1.12 24.5 1.21 59.3 0.94 65.6 1.70 65.0 1.93 61.8
1.5 0.45 55.5 0.66 67.1 0.88 67.1 1.10 68.3 2.95 68.0
2.0 0.28 55.2 0.51 63.6 0.76 63.6 1.01 65.9 5.06 65.1

DI ˆ 1:18) while N  ˆ 1:26. Similarly, for l2 ˆ 1, the
value of DI is the value of N  as predicted in Table 3
(where DI ˆ 1:52) while F  ˆ 1:26.
5. Conclusions
A multiobjective design study is carried out with the
objective being the maximisation of the weighted sum of
the critical buckling load and resonance frequency.
Symmetrically laminated rectangular plates subjected to
biaxial in-plane loads are considered, each having four
layers. Five di€erent boundary condition cases are also
investigated.
The ®nite element method was used in the analysis of
the plates, and coupled with an optimisation routine.
The FEM was chosen for the study because complicat-
ing e€ects like bending±twisting coupling are included in
the procedure. The ®nite element formulation which is
used in the present study is based on Mindlin type the-
ory for laminated composite plates.
Graphs showing the e€ect of the ®bre angle h on the
Design Index DI illustrate that the maximum Design
Index for a given boundary condition and aspect ratio
occurs at a speci®c value of the ®bre angle (referred to as
 M. Walker / Composite Structures 54 (2001) 389±393
Fig. 4. Trade-o€ curve for square (S,S,S,S) plate with k ˆ 1.
the optimal ®bre angle hopt ), and this value can be sev-
eral times higher than the buckling load at other ®bre
angles. This fact emphasises the importance of carrying
out optimisation in design work of this nature to obtain
the best performance of ®bre composite plates.
Generally speaking, it was found that the boundary
conditions had little in¯uence on the Design Index, but a
marked e€ect on the optimal ®bre angles, and that DI
increased as the plate aspect ratio increased. Also, as the
loading ratio k increased, so hopt increased, while as the
weighting factor l2 increased, so both DI and hopt also
increased.
This multiobjective study illustrates that improved
buckling and resonance performance can, in general, be
obtained from plates which are designed in this fashion.
The multiobjective results are also compared to single
objective design results.
393
References
[1] Bert CW, Chen TLC. Optimal design of composite material plates
to resist buckling under biaxial compression. Trans Jpn Soc
Compos Mater 1976;2:7±10.
[2] Hirano Y. Optimal design of laminated plates under axial
compression. AIAA J 1979;17(9):1017±9.
[3] Wang JTS. Best angles against buckling for rectangular laminates.
In: Hayashi T, Kawata K, Umekawa S, editors. Progress in
Science and Engineering of Composites, Proceedings of the
Fourth International Conference on Composite Materials,
ICCM-IV, 1982; Tokyo.
[4] Tang J. On optimal design of laminated plates and the e€ect of
coupling between bending and extension. Comput Struct Mech
Appl 1984;1:75±84 [in Chinese].
[5] Joshi SPS, Iyengar NGR. Optimal design of laminated composite
plates under axial compression. Trans Can Soc Mech Eng
1985;9:45±50.
[6] Miki M. Optimal design of ®brous laminated composite plates
subject to axial compression. In: Kawata K, Umekawa S,
Kobayashi A, editors. Composites 86: Recent Advances in Japan
and the United States, 1986; Tokyo. p. 673±80.
[7] Walker M, Adali S, Verijenko VE. Optimization of symmetric
laminates for maximum buckling load including the e€ects of
bending±twisting coupling. Comput Struct 1996;58:313±9.
[8] Iyengar NGR, Umaretiya JR. Transverse vibrations of hybrid
laminated plates. J Vib Sound 1986;104:78±90.
[9] Rao SS, Singh K. Optimum design of laminates with natural
frequency constraints. J Vib Sound 1979;67:101±12.
[10] Bert CW. Optimal design of a composite material plate to
maximise its fundamental frequency. J Vib Sound 1977;66:565±76.
[11] Adali S, Du€y KJ. Optimal hybridisation of antisymmetric angle-
ply laminater undergoing free vibrations. Eng Opt 1992;18:287±
301.
[12] Ren JG, Owen DRG. Vibration and buckling of laminted plates.
Int J Solids Struct 1989;25:95±106.
[13] Haftka RT, G urdal Z. Elements of structural optimisation. 3rd
ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1992.