6th International Advanced Technologies Symposium (IATS11), 16-18 May 2011, Elaz, Turkey

Application of Layerwise Optimization Method

to Maximum Buckling Load Design of
Laminated Thin Plates
U. Topal1
1

University of Gmhane, Gmhane/Turkey, umut@ktu.edu.tr

and bound method (FBB) for optimizing the stacking
sequences. The new method was applied to the buckling load
maximization of a blade-stiffened composite panel, in which
the strength constraint was demonstrated as a feasibility.
Bisagni and Lanzi [5] studied post-buckling optimization
procedure for the design of composite stiffened panels
subjected to compression loads. Joshi and Biggers [6] used
method of feasible directions to determine optimal thickness
distributions over the plate that yield maximum uniaxial and
biaxial buckling loads. Fares et al. [7] presented
multiobjective design and control optimization of composite
laminated plates is to minimize the postbuckling dynamic
response and maximize the buckling load. Hu and Lin [8]
investigated the buckling load optimization of symmetrically
laminated plates with a given material system and subjected to
uniaxial compression with respect to fiber orientations by
using a sequential linear programming method together with a
simple move-limit strategy. Fukunaga et al. [9] presented an
optimization approach on laminate configurations of
symmetrically laminated plates to maximize buckling loads
under combined loading. Correia et al. [10] studied optimal
design of laminated composite plates with integrated
piezoelectric actuators.

AbstractIn this study, application of layerwise optimization

method (LO) for determining the optimum layups and maximum
buckling loads of symmetrically laminated thin plates subjected to
biaxial load is described. The classical laminated plate theory
(CLPT) is used for finite element solution of the laminates. The
numerical results are conducted for 6-layered plates. The effect of
plate aspect ratios and boundary conditions on the optimum
results is investigated.
KeywordsLaminated plates, layerwise optimization method,
buckling, optimum design.

I. INTRODUCTION
Laminated composite plates are widely used for structural
applications in aerospace, automotive, and civil engineering.
Due to the elaborate choice of raw materials and the wellconsidered laminate lay-up, the engineered composites show
high stiffness and strength values at a reasonably low weight.
However, in such applications, buckling phenomenon was
often observed. Buckling phenomenon is critically dangerous
to structural components because the buckling of composite
plates usually occurs at a lower applied stress and generates
large deformation. This led to a focus on the study of buckling
behavior in composite materials.
An exhaustive survey on the literature regarding the
buckling load optimization of laminated plates has been
carried out. Aymerich and Serra [1] illustrated the application
of the ant colony optimization (ACO) metaheuristic to the layup design of laminated panels for maximization of buckling
load with strength constraints. A specific problem previously
studied by different researchers using genetic algorithms (GA)
and Tabu search (TS) was chosen as a test-case to characterize
the computational efficiency and the quality of results
provided by the developed ACO algorithm. Setoodeh et al. [2]
presented a generalized reciprocal approximation for design of
variable-stiffness laminated composite panels for maximum
buckling load. Erdal and Sonmez [3] studied a method to find
globally optimum designs for two-dimensional composite
structures subject to given in-plane static loads for which the
critical failure mode is buckling. The aim was to maximize the
buckling load capacity of laminated composites. For this
purpose an improved version of simulated annealing
algorithm, which was direct simulated annealing (DSA), was
utilized. Todoroki and Sekishiro [4] proposed a fractal branch

II. BASIC EQUATIONS

Consider a laminated plate of length a, width b and
thickness h as shown in Figure 1 in a typical coordinate
system. In the classical Kirchhoffs plate theory, the
displacement field of a laminated composite plate is given by

w
,
x
w
v( x, y,z ) vo ( x, y ) z
,
y
u( x, y,z ) uo ( x, y ) z

(1)

w( x, y,z ) wo ( x, y )
where (u o , vo , w o ) are the displacement components along
the (x, y, z) coordinate directions of a point on the midplane,
respectively. The membrane strains (x , y , xy ) and the
bending curvatures

44

(x , y , xy ) are defined as follows:

Application of Layerwise Optimization Method to Maximum Buckling Load Design of Laminated Thin Plates

x
o,x

y vo,y ,

xy uo,y vo,x

functions associated with node i (i=1, 2,, n), i , for

interpolating the variables in each element, the displacement
vectors can be written as

x o,xx
y wo,yy

xy 2wo,xy

u i ( x, y )ui

where u i is the value of the displacement vector

corresponding to node i.
For the linear buckling problems, the stability equation can
be expressed as the following eigenvalue problem:

The in-plane stress resultants Nij and the moment resultants

Mij are defined by the constitutive relations that given by:

Nx A
N 11
y
N
xy

Mx
M y

M xy

A12
A22

A16
A26
A66

B11
B12
B16
D11

B12
B22
B26
D12
D22

sym

B16 x

B26 y
B66 xy

D16 x
D26 y

D66 xy

K b K g u 0

(3)

h / 2

Qij 1,z,z 2 dz (i, j=1, 2, 6)

K and

IV. OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM

In the optimization problem, the critical buckling load
(buckling parameter) is the objective function to be
maximized. The design variables are taken to be a set of fibre
orientation angles in the N layers of the upper (lower) half of
the plate cross-section:

calculated as follows
h/ 2

(6)

K g denote the stiffness matrix and matrix

and geometric-stiffness matrix due to the prebuckling stresses,
respectively. The inverse method is used to obtain the smallest
eigenvalue b .
where

where Aij , Bij and Dij denote the extensional, coupling and
bending stiffnesses, respectively. Aij , Bij and Dij can be

Aij ,Bij ,Dij

(5)

i 1

(2)

(1) / (2) / .../ (N)

(4)

(7)

where (k) is the fibre orientation angle of the kth layer (k=1
for outermost, k=N for innermost) and the subscript s denotes
symmetric lamination. Therefore, the optimization problem
may be written in standard form as
Find: (1) / (2) / .../ (N)

s, opt
Maximize: b

(8)

Subject to: 0 90
V. LAYERWISE OPTIMIZATION METHOD
The well-known physical fact suggests that the outer layer
plays a more influential role in determining the maximum
critical buckling load of laminated plates. Therefore, the
following approach to the solution of the optimization problem
is advocated:
The
optimum
stacking
sequence
for
(1)
(2)
(N)
/ / .../
the maximum critical buckling load

s, opt

Figure 1. Laminated plates under biaxial compression load

of a laminated plate can be obtained by determining the

optimum fibre angle for each layer sequentially working from
the outermost to the innermost layer.

III. FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION

In this study, four-noded Lagrangian finite element having
three degrees of freedom per node (u, v, w) is used for
thermal buckling of laminated plates. Using the same shape

If (k)
bopt is assumed to be the maximum buckling parameter
obtained in the kth step (note that the same k indicating the

45

U. Topal

b bb2 / ET h3

layer number is used because it deals with the kth layer), the
following procedure, based on the foregoing assumption, may
be used to determine opt :
Step 0. Assume a laminated plate made of N hypothetical
layers in the upper (also in the lower) half of the cross-section
with no bending rigidity.

(10)

In step 1, the first (outermost) layer is replaced by an

orthotropic layer with elastic properties given in (9) and the
optimum

fibre

orientation

angle

(1)
opt

is

determined

sequentially by changing (1) in 5 increments starting from

Step 1. Find (1)

opt , using a one-dimensional search, which

0 and finishing at 90 . In step 2, (1)

opt is determined for a

maximizes the critical buckling load (1)

bopt of the laminated
plate with an orthotropic lamina (i.e. with E L , E T , G LT and
LT ) in the first (outermost) layer. The (N-1) inner layers
remain hypothetical with no rigidity.

plate with the fibre angle of the first layer maintained at (1)
opt
and the virtual second layer is replaced by an orthotropic layer.
This process is terminated after (3)
opt is determined in step 3.

Step 2. Find (2)

opt , using a one-dimensional search, which

The first set of solutions (1) / (2) / (3)

is then used as

s, opt

maximizes the critical buckling load (2)

bopt of the laminated
plate with an orthotropic lamina in the second layer and an

an initial approximation of the solution for a second iteration

or cycle of the LO procedure.

orthotropic first layer with (1) (1)

opt . The (N-2) inner layers
remain hypothetical with no rigidity.
Steps 3 to N1. The foregoing process is repeated to yield

In Table 1, effect of plate aspect ratio (a/b) on the optimum

design is investigated for simply supported 6-layered plates
subjected to biaxial compression loads (b/h=100). As seen
from Table 1, for all plate aspect ratios the optimum fibre
orientations are mostly (90/90/90/90).

(N 1)
(3)
opt ,, opt .

Step N. Find (N)

opt which maximizes the critical buckling load

Table 1. Effect of a/b ratios on the optimum results

(N)
bopt of the laminated plate with an orthotropic lamina in the
Nth innermost layer. This last step determines the optimum
lay-up (1) / (2) / .../ (N)
which maximizes the critical

s, opt

a/b

opt ( )

bopt

(0/0/0/0) or (90/90/90/90)

950.32

buckling load bopt (N)

bopt of the laminated plate.
The above set of steps 1N may be considered as one cycle
of the LO iterative solution procedure. In the first cycle, the
inner layers are assumed to have zero stiffness and the fibre
orientation angles determined at step N in the first cycle, i.e.
(1) / (2) / .../ (N)
must be a better initial

s, opt

1.5

(90/90/90/90)

1053.92

(90/90/90/90)

981.98

2.5

(90/90/90/90)

935.95

(90/90/90/90)

950.32

In Table 2, effect of boundary conditions on the optimum

design is investigated. The boundary conditions of the plates
are denoted by free (F), simply supported (S) and clamped (C)
edge. The notation is applied counterclockwise to the plate
edges (1), (2), (3) and (4) defined by x=-a/2, y=-b/2, x=a/2 and
y=b/2 respectively. For example, the label CFCF plate denotes
a plate with edge (1) and (2) clamped, (3) and (4) free. As seen
from Table 2, for all boundary conditions the optimum fibre
orientations are mostly (0/0/0/0).

approximation for the second cycle of steps 1N. The iterative

cycles continue until a converged solution is obtained. The
basic idea of the LO procedure was first presented by Narita
[11]. It was applied to the optimization of the free vibration
frequencies of symmetrically laminated plates.
VI. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the LO
procedure in determining the lay-ups which maximize the
buckling loads of 6-layered plates (1) / (2) / (3)

s, opt

Table 2. Effect of boundary conditions on the optimum results

subjected to biaxial compression loads a number of examples

are presented. The following typical values are assumed for
the elastic moduli and major Poisson ratio:

EL 138GPa , ET 8.96GPa , GLT 7.1GPa ,

LT 0.30
The nondimesional buckling load is calculated as

(9)

46

Boundary
conditions

opt ( )

bopt

(SSSS)

(0/0/0/0) or (90/90/90/90)

950.32

(CCCC)

(0/0/0/0)

6634.17

(CSCS)

(0/0/0/0)

4742.64

(CFCF)

(0/0/0/0)

1560.87

Application of Layerwise Optimization Method to Maximum Buckling Load Design of Laminated Thin Plates
VII. CONCLUSIONS

[10] V. M. F. Correia, C. M. M. Soares and C. A. M. Soares,

Buckling optimization of composite laminated adaptive
structures, Composite Structures, vol. 62, pp. 315-321,
2003.
[11] Y. Narita, Layerwise optimization for the maximum
frequency of laminated composite plates, Journal of
Sound and Vibration, vol. 263, pp. 1005-1016, 2003.

The limited set of results presented in the paper suggest that

the LO procedure is a simple technique for determining
laminate lay-ups, which maximize the buckling loads of
symmetrically laminated plates in uniform biaxial compression
loads. While it has not been possible to demonstrate that a
global optimum is always found when applying the LO
procedure, it should be recognized that many other
optimization techniques suffer from this drawback. Finally,
because the lamina fibre angles are optimized sequentially
rather than simultaneously, as in many optimization
procedures, the computational effort is greatly reduced.
REFERENCES
[1] F. Aymerich and M. Serra, Optimization of laminate
stacking sequence for maximum buckling load using the
ant colony optimization (ACO) metaheuristic,
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing,
vol. 39, pp. 262-272, February 2008.
[2] S. Setoodeh, M. M. Abdalla, S. T. IJsselmuiden and Z.
Grdal, Design of variable-stiffness composite panels for
maximum buckling load, Composite Structures, vol. 87,
pp. 109-117, January 2009.
[3] O. Erdal and F. O. Sonmez, Optimum design of
composite laminates for maximum buckling load capacity
using
simulated
annealing,
Composite Structures, vol. 71, pp. 45-52, October 2005.
[4] A. Todoroki and M. Sekishiro, Stacking sequence
optimization to maximize the buckling load of bladestiffened panels with strength constraints using the
iterative fractal branch and bound method,
Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 39, pp. 842-850,
July 2008.
[5] C. Bisagni and L. Lanzi, Post-buckling optimisation of
composite stiffened panels using neural networks,
Composite Structures, vol. 58, pp. 237-247, November
2002.
[6] M. G. Joshi and S. B. Biggers Jr, Thickness optimization
for maximum buckling loads in composite laminated
plates,Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 27, pp. 105114, 1996.
[7] M.E. Fares, Y.G. Youssif and A.E. Elshoraky, Nonlinear design and control optimization of composite
laminated plates with buckling and postbuckling
objectives,
International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, vol. 41,
pp. 807-824, July-September 2006.
[8] H. T. Hu and B. H. Lin, Buckling optimization of
symmetrically laminated plates with various geometries
and end conditions, Composites Science and Technology,
vol. 55, pp. 277-285, 1995.
[9] H. Fukunaga, H. Sekine, M. Sato and A. Iino, Buckling
design of symmetrically laminated plates using lamination
parameters, Computers & Structures, vol. 57, pp. 643649, November 1995.

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