Optimization of Buckling Strength and Fundamental
Frequency of Uniformly Heated Cylindrical Panel
using PSO
Vinod Bhagat Jeyaraj Pitchaimani
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology National Institute of Technology
Surathkal, Karnataka 575025 Surathkal, Karnataka 575025
Email: vinbha2011@gmail.com Email: pjeyaemkm@gmail.com
AbstractIn the present study, thermal buckling and funda-
mental frequency of symmetrically laminated cylindrical panel
is optimized. Fiber orientation is considered as a design variable
for the same. Eigenvalue buckling analysis and modal analysis
is performed by using finite element method. Particle swarm
optimization is used as optimization technique. MATLAB code is
generated to integrate finite element method with particle swarm
optimization. Finally, the influence of aspect ratio (L/S), curvature
ratio (R/S), thickness ratio (R/h), effect of different weighting
factors and boundary constraints on the optimum results are
investigated.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In the recent years, due to the advancement in composite
technology under thermal environment, composite cylindrical
panels have found its applications in highly sophisticated struc-
tures such as nuclear reactors, supersonic and hypersonic air-
craft, extremely inflammable fluid storage containers, satellites
and rockets. However, the prediction of the buckling behavior
of laminated cylindrical panel under thermal environment is
difficult, but vital for a better understanding and deciding
their load-carrying capacity. Similarly, vibration also play an
important role in the design of structures as it may fail when
the excitation frequency matches with its resonance frequency.
Lot of research work has been carried out on the optimization
of buckling strength and free vibration of laminated cylindrical
shells.
Thermal buckling strength of laminated composite plates
exposed to uniform temperature profile was optimized by
[1] using guided random-search method. Multi-objective op-
timization approach was used by [2] to maximize the first
natural frequency and critical buckling load of laminated
cylindrical panels under mechanical load by stacking sequence
method. Buckling strength of uniformly heated laminated
plates was optimized by [3] using modified Feasible Direction
(MFD) method. They maximized the buckling temperature
by altering fiber orientation. Buckling and frequency of lam-
inated cylindrical shells under external load was optimized
by [4]. First order shear deformation theory(FSDT) was used
978-1-5090-3646-2/16/$31.00
2016
c IEEE
S.M. Murigendrappa
National Institute of Technology
Surathkal, Karnataka 575025
Email: smm@nitk.ac.in
for the finite element formulation of the laminated shells
and modified feasible direction method (MFD) was used for
optimization. Thermal buckling strength of the symmetrically
laminated cylindrical shells was maximized by [5]. Finite
element method based on the first-order shear deformation
theory(FSDT) was used for buckling analysis. Whereas, for
optimization, the modified feasible direction approach was
employed.
Genetic algorithm (GA) with artificial neural networks
(ANN) was implemented by [6] to maximize the natural
frequency and buckling load of laminated cylindrical shell
and this was achieved by optimizing the stacking sequence
of the shell. [7] used the combination of the differential
quadrature method, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm
and Young bargaining model to maximize thermal buckling
temperature and fundamental natural frequency of laminated
composite plates. To the authors best knowledge, most of
the literature have focused on optimization using Genetic
algorithm which is difficult to apply with lot of parameters
needs to be adjusted. Compared to Genetic algorithm, Particle
swarm optimization is easy to implement and there are few
parameters to adjust, thus present study uses Particle swarm
optimization technique for multi-objective optimization. Multi-
objective optimization of laminated cylindrical panels under
uniform thermal load is to maximize the weighted sum of
thermal buckling temperature and fundamental frequency.
II. A NALYSIS APPROACH
Multi-objective optimization of thermal buckling and fun-
damental frequency of a laminated cylindrical panel shown
in Fig. 1 is carried out using numerical method. Scheme of
numerical approach used in the present work is depicted in
Fig. 2. Finite element method is implemented to determine the
critical buckling temperature and the fundamental frequency
of the panel. Present study uses particle swarm optimization
(PSO) technique to optimize the buckling strength and fre-
quency of the uniformly heated laminated cylindrical panel.
Code is developed in MATLAB environment to integrate the
 where, [M ] is the structural mass matrix, while k is the
natural frequency of the structure and {k } the corresponding
mode shape.
Throughout the analysis, the following non-dimensional
quantities are used:

Tcr
Tcr = ; F = ; (3)
T0 0
where T0 and F0 are the critical buckling temperature
and fundamental frequency, respectively, corresponding to a
prescribed fiber orientation ( 0o /0o /0o /0o ) symmetric for four
layered laminated cylindrical shell (L/S=1, R/S=5, S/h=100).

B. Particle Swarm Optimization

Fig. 1. Geometry of the Cylindrical panel
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) method, a powerful
evolutionary computation technique was proposed by [8] to
solve optimization problems. PSO method incorporates the
swarming behaviour observed in schools of fish, flocks of
birds, or swarms of bees. PSO is simple in concept, faster
in convergence rate and easy to implement [9]. Detailed
algorithm of PSO method given by [10] is as follows
Particle swarm optimization algorithm:
1) Set PSO parameters like self-confidence factor (c1 ),
swarm confidence factor (c2 ), maximum iterations(Imax )
[11].
Fig. 2. A scheme of numerical analysis 2) Initialize population of particles having positions X.
Xi = Xmin + r (Xmax Xmin )
PSO with ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) code
where, Xmax , upper and X min , lower bounds on the
for the optimization.
design variables values and r, uniformly distributed
A. Finite element formulation random variable.
A cylindrical panel analyzed, has a mean radius of curvature 3) Set iteration k=1
(R), thickness (h), width (S) and length (L) as shown in Fig. 4) Evaluate the fitness of each particle and the index of the
1. Finite element method (FEM) is implemented to analyze best particle b is located.
the critical buckling temperature and the natural frequencies Fik = f Xik


of a laminated cylindrical panel. An eight node isoparametric
shell element (SHELL281) is used to discretized the model. 5) Select the best position of each particle over time, Pik =
Critical buckling temperature of the panel is computed using Xik and the best global value in the swarm,Pgk = Xbk .
linear eigenvalue buckling analysis. Whereas, modal analysis 6) Compute constriction factor () to regulate the explo-
is used to compute the fundamental frequency of the panel. ration and exploitation trade-off and to ensure conver-
Buckling analysis is implemented using the structural stiff- gence behaviour.
ness matrix [K] and geometric stiffness matrix [K ] based on 2
the following relation. =  p 
2 2 4


([K] + i [K ]) {i } = 0 (1)
where = c1 + c2
where i is the eigenvalue and { i } is the corresponding 7) Update velocity and position of particles using given
eigenvector for ith buckling mode. The product of the tem- Equations
perature rise T (above ambient temperature) and the lowest
vik+1 = vik + c1 r1 (pki Xik ) + c2 r2 (pkg Xik )


eigenvalue, i gives the critical buckling temperature, Tcr that
is Tcr = 1 T. where r1 and r2 are uniformly distributed random vari-
The natural frequency of the panel can be determined by ables (01).
calculating the stiffness matrix and by solving the eigenvalue
problem as given below: Xik+1 = Xik + vik+1 t
[K] + k2 [M ] {k } = 0


(2) where t is considered to be of a unit value.
 TABLE I TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF OPTIMUM FIBER ORIENTATION WITH [3] D IFFERENT STRUCTURAL BOUNDARY CONSTRAINTS INVESTIGATED

opt (o ) Structural and boundary constraints

CCCC SSCC SSSS CCFC
[3] Present study
54 54.025

8) Evaluate fitness Fik+1 = f Xik+1 ; i and the index of

y= 0, S; u = v = w= y= S; v = w = 0; x y=0, S; v = w = 0 y= 0, S; u = v = w=
0 =0 x = 0 0
the best particle b1 is determined. x = y = 0 y= 0; u = v = w = 0 x = y = 0
x = y = 0
9) Update best position of each particle, pi of population x = 0, L; u0 = v0 = x= 0; u = w= 0; y = x = 0, L; u = w= 0 x = 0; u = v =w= 0
i. w0 = 0 0; y = 0 x = y = 0
x = y = 0 x = L; u = v = w= 0
If Fik+1 <Fik then pk+1
i = Xik+1 else pk+1
i = pki x = y = 0

10) Update best global value in the swarm, pg of population.

k+1
If Fb1 <Fbk then pk+1 g = pk+1
b1 and set b = b1 else
k+1
pg = pg k IV. R ESULTS AND DISCUSSION
11) If k < Imax , then k = k + 1 and go to step 7 else go to Cylindrical panel with following geometrical parameters
step 12. is considered for investigation with thickness (h) =0.001m,
12) Print optimum solution. curvature ratio (R/S) =5, aspect ratio (L/S) = 1 and thickness
ratio (S/h) =100. Cylindrical panel analyzed is made up
C. Problem Formulation of T300/5208 graphite/epoxy material with following
The optimization problem is formulated to locate the best material properties; E11 =181GPa, E22 =E33 =10.3GPa,
fiber orientation of the laminated cylindrical panels in order G12 =G13 =7.17GPa, G23 =2.39GPa, 12 = 13 = 23 =0.28,
to maximize the critical buckling temperature and also fun- =1603 kg/m3 , 1 =0.02106 /o C, 2 =22.5106 /o C,
damental natural frequency. The multi-objective design index, K1 /K2 =4.62/0.72. where E, G, , and K denote Youngs
MODI, can be stated as follows: modulus, Shear modulus, Poissons ratio, coefficient of
thermal expansion and thermal conductivity respectively,
and the subscripts 1, 2, and 3 denotes the on-axis material
M ODI = Tcr + F (4)
coordinates.
where and are the weighting coefficients summing the Cylindrical panel is analyzed for four different structural
two objective functions with , 1 + = 1. Thus, the boundary constraints namely CCCC, SSCC, SSSS and CCFC
optimization problem (where C- clamped, S-simply supported and F-free) . First
Find fiber orientation () letter in these boundary constraints shown in Table II is
  related to forefront curved edge at x=0 in order. To know

max(M ODI) = max Tcr () + F ()
(5) the effect of constrained edges on the buckling strength and
fundamental frequency of cylindrical panel, CCCC boundary
constraint is analyzed. Further, influence of relaxed constraints
00 900 is indicated by SSSS boundary constraints. Whereas, SSCC
boundary constraints is employed to study the combined effect
In this study, symmetric four layered laminate configura- of constrained and relaxed edges. Finally, the panel with CCFC
tions is considered [/-/-/]. boundary constraints is also analyzed to know the effect of free
edge on the performance index.
III. VALIDATION OF T HERMAL BUCKLING LOAD
O PTIMIZATION A. Effect of weighting factor on the optimal designs
A CCCC laminated plate optimized by [3] under uniform Study is carried out to analyze the influence of different
temperature rise for the buckling strength has been taken weighting factors on the optimal design. A cylindrical lami-
for the validation. The dimensions of the plate considered nated panel exposed to uniform thermal load is investigated
by [3] are S/h= 100, R/S = 1000 and L/S = 1 with for weighting factor, = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1. Fig.
following properties; E11 =181GPa, E22 =E33 =10.3GPa, 3 depicts the effects of different weighting factors on the
G12 =G13 =7.17GPa, G23 =2.39GPa, 12 = 13 = 23 =0.28, multi-objective design index (MODI). It is observed that the
=1603 kg/m3 , 1 =0.02106 /o C, 2 =22.5106 /o C; MODI changes with the fiber orientation, and found to be
Wherein, they implemented modified feasible direction maximum at a particular value. Table III shows, the effect of
(MFD) method for optimization, while particle swarm weighting factor on the (MODI)max . It is noted that, there
optimization method is employed in the present study. Based is no significant change in fiber orientation for (MODI)max
on the present approach, the optimum fiber orientation under weighting factor of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75. As observed
recorded as shown in Table I shows close agreement with from Table III that, the largest (MODI)max occurs at = 0.75
that of [3]. for a cylindrical panel, which means that influence of thermal
 TABLE IV
I NFLUENCE OF CURVATURE RATIO ON OPTIMUM FIBER ORIENTATION AND
(MODI)max

Curvature (MODI)max Fiber orientation

ratio 0.25 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.5 0.75
2.5 2.668 4.443 6.212 49.366 49.388 49.265
5 1.321 2.040 2.756 46.724 46.967 47.087
7.5 0.873 1.251 1.647 45.322 45.802 45.971
10 0.711 0.978 1.245 42.391 42.419 42.411

indicated in Fig. 5. It can be observed that, the MODI attains

higher values at lower thickness ratio and this is due to
the fact that the stiffness of the panel decreases with the
increase in thickness ratio. Again in this analysis, it is observed
that maximum values of MODI occur at fiber orientation
of 450 - 550 this indicates that fiber gives better properties
both in longitudinal and transverse direction at orientation of
450 - 550 . At weighting factor() of 0.25 being dominated
Fig. 3. Effect of weighting factor on MODI by fundamental frequency, change in MODI with the fiber
orientation is not so significant compared to =0.5, 0.75. Table
V shows the influence of thickness ratio on the maximum
buckling temperature on the MODI is more dominant than the performance index. It is noted that maximum performance
fundamental frequency of the panel. when =0, 1, then the index decreases with the increase in thickness ratio due to the
multi-objective problem changes to single objective problem. fact that the buckling strength of the panel decreases with the
As observed from Fig. 3, the fundamental frequency of the thickness ratio and MODI is fully dominated by the buckling
panel decreases with the increase in the fiber orientation. strength of the panel.
TABLE III
E FFECT OF WEIGHTING FACTOR ON MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE INDEX TABLE V
I NFLUENCE OF THICKNESS RATIO ON OPTIMUM FIBER ORIENTATION AND
Weighting factor (MODI)max Fiber orientation (MODI)max
0.25 1.321 46.724
0.50 2.040 46.967 (MODI)max Fiber orientation
Thickness ratio 0.25 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.5 0.75
0.75 2.760 47.087
75 1.716 2.522 3.330 45.770 46.200 46.384
100 1.321 2.040 2.760 46.729 46.935 47.092
B. Effect of curvature ratio on the optimal design 125 1.126 1.801 2.477 46.577 46.667 46.676
150 0.934 1.521 2.109 47.682 48.151 48.348
Fig. 4 depicts the influence of curvature ratio, fiber orienta-
tion and the weighting factor on the performance index. It can
be seen from Fig. 4 that, MODI increases with the stiffness of D. Effect of aspect ratio on the optimum design
the panel thus, it attains maximum value at a lower curvature Study is carried out to analyze the effect of aspect ratio
ratio (R/S=2.5). This is mainly due to change in moment of on the performance index along with the fiber orientation.
inertia with the curvature ratio. It is also noted that there is Fig.6 shows the influence of aspect ratio on the performance
not much variation in the behavior of the MODI at higher index. A cylindrical panel with different aspect ratio does not
curvature ratio. Similarly, fiber orientation also influences the show any significant change in the behavioral pattern of the
performance index as the material properties of the panel performance index. Magnitude of the MODI at =0.25 is
in longitudinal and transverse direction changes with the found to be lesser than the other two weighting factor. Highest
fiber orientation. Table IV shows the influence of curvature value of MODI is found to be at = 0.75 irrespective of
ratio on the maximum performance index. It is clearly noted the aspect ratio. Table VI shows the influence of aspect ratio
that maximum performance index decreases with the increase on the maximum performance index. Variation in maximum
in curvature ratio and variation is not significant at higher performance index is significant at higher aspect ratio. Again
curvature ratio. Among the two objectives, optimum critical it is observed that, there is no change in fiber orientation with
buckling temperature totally dominates the fundamental fre- respect to aspect ratio.
quency thus, maximum value of MODI can be noted at =
E. Effect of boundary constraints on the optimal design
0.75.
Present study also deals with the effect of different boundary
C. Effect of thickness ratio on the optimal design constraints on the MODI as shown in Fig. 7. As anticipated the
Thickness ratio, fiber orientation and weighting factor sig- SSSS boundary condition shows higher MODI value compared
nificantly influence the performance index and the same is to other boundary constraints. This is due to the fact that, it
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 4. Behavior of performance index under different curvature ratio (a) = 0.25 (b) = 0.5 and (c) = 0.75

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 5. Behavior of performance index under different thickness ratio (a) = 0.25 (b) = 0.5 and (c) = 0.75

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 6. Behavior of performance index under different aspect ratio (a) = 0.25 (b) = 0.5 and (c) = 0.75

TABLE VI that, the influence of the fiber orientation on the fundamental

I NFLUENCE OF ASPECT RATIO ON OPTIMUM FIBER ORIENTATION AND frequency is not so significant as compared to buckling temper-
(MODI)max
ature thus, under all weighting factor, MODI follows buckling
(MODI)max Fiber orientation behavior profile which is of increasing-decreasing in nature.
aspect ratio 0.25 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.5 0.75 Table VII shows the influence of boundary constraints on the
0.75 1.292 1.874 2.455 45.497 45.815 46.012
1 1.321 2.040 2.760 46.729 46.935 47.092
optimal fiber orientation and maximum performance index.
1.5 1.403 2.267 3.132 47.007 47.229 47.316 For a weighting factor of 0.5, cylindrical panel is observed
2 1.400 2.281 3.165 47.198 47.714 47.919 to have performance index of 2.040, 2.197, 4.371 and 2.171
under CCCC, SSCC, SSSS and CCFC boundary constraints
respectively. It is also observed form Table VII that, there is
allows some of the stress to relieve thus requires high temper- no significant variation in the optimum fiber orientation under
ature to generate enough membrane forces to cause buckling. different boundary constraints.
Whereas CCCC boundary constraints shows the lesser MODI
value as all degree of freedom are constrained. Fig. 7 shows
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 7. Behavior of performance index under different boundary constraints (a) = 0.25 (b) = 0.5 and (c) = 0.75

TABLE VII [6] A. Gharib and M. Shakeri, Stacking sequence optimization of laminated
I NFLUENCE OF BOUNDARY CONSTRAINTS ON OPTIMUM FIBER cylindrical shells for buckling and free vibration using genetic algo-
ORIENTATION AND (MODI) max rithm and neural networks, International Conference on Engineering
Optimization, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 69, 2010.
Boundary (MODI)max Fiber orientation [7] A. Vosoughi and M. Nikoo, Maximum fundamental frequency and
constraints 0.25 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.5 0.75 thermal buckling temperature of laminated composite plates by a new
CCCC 1.321 2.040 2.760 46.729 46.935 47.092 hybrid multi-objective optimization technique, Thin-Walled Structures,
SSCC 1.350 2.197 3.043 47.168 47.618 47.753 vol. 95, pp. 408 415, 2015.
SSSS 2.417 4.371 6.325 45.365 45.428 45.395 [8] R. Eberhart and J. Kennedy, A new optimizer using particle swarm
CCFC 1.290 2.171 3.054 46.727 47.276 47.389 theory, IEEE Proceedings of the sixth international symposium on micro
machine and human science, Nagoya, Japan, pp. 3943, 1995.
[9] D. P. Rini, S. M. Shamsuddin, and S. S. Yuhaniz, Article: Particle
swarm optimization: Technique, system and challenges, International
V. C ONCLUSION Journal of Computer Applications, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1927, 2011.
[10] Q. Bai, Article: Analysis of particle swarm optimization algorithm,
In the present study, a symmetrically laminated cylindrical Computers and Information Science, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 180184, 2010.
[11] Y. Shi and R. C. Eberhart, Parameter selection in particle swarm
panel is analyzed with two different objectives. Objective of optimization. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1998,
the optimum design, is to maximize the thermal buckling pp. 591600.
strength and the fundamental frequency of the panel. To do so,
fiber orientation is taken as a design variable. Meta-heuristic,
particle swarm optimization is used as a optimization tech-
nique. Numerical and graphical results are presented for dif-
ferent curvature ratio, thickness ratio, aspect ratio, weighting
factors and boundary conditions. Results shows that, the multi
objective design index is highly influenced by the thermal
buckling strength than the fundamental frequency. It is also
noted that, the performance index increases with the decrease
in curvature ratio and decrease in thickness ratio. It is also
observed that, the SSSS boundary constraint has major impact
on the performance index.

R EFERENCES
[1] R. Spallino and G. Thierauf, Thermal buckling optimization of com-
posite laminates by evolution strategies, Computers Structures, vol. 78,
no. 5, pp. 691 697, 2000.
[2] M. Abouhamze and M. Shakeri, Multi-objective stacking sequence
optimization of laminated cylindrical panels using a genetic algorithm
and neural networks, Composite Structures, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 253
263, 2007.
[3] U. Topal and U. Uzman, Thermal buckling load optimization of
laminated composite plates, Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 46, no. 6, pp.
667 675, 2008.
[4] U. Topal, Multiobjective optimization of laminated composite cylindri-
cal shells for maximum frequency and buckling load, Materials Design,
vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 2584 2594, 2009.
[5] U. Topal and U. Uzman, Thermal buckling load optimization of angle-
ply laminated cylindrical shells, Materials Design, vol. 30, no. 3, pp.
532 536, 2009.