Authors: Omar S Hussein Sameer B Mulani
Publish Date: 2017/03/06
Volume: 56, Issue: 2, Pages: 271-284
Abstract
The work of this paper proposes a method for multidimensional optimization of functionally graded materials FGMs composition The method is based on using polynomial expansion of the volume fraction of the constituent materials In this approach the design variables are the coefficients of the polynomial expansion which to be determined through the optimization process This method provides much more flexibility in the design compared to the methods based on the powerlaw or the exponentiallaw which will in turn lead to more optimal designs Also it requires much less number of design variables compared to the grid based approaches which is also utilized for twodimensional optimization of FGMs structures As an application of the proposed method the optimization of a simply supported Aluminum plate reinforced with Silicon Carbide nanoparticles is considered Cost plays a very important role for this type of structures since the cost of the reinforcements such as Silicon Carbide nanoparticles or carbon nanotubes is too high So the aim of the optimization process is to minimize the amount of the reinforcement required to satisfy certain performance criteria Both static and dynamic cases are considered in this work a plate under a transverse pressure distribution is considered as the static case and the panel flutter problem as the dynamic caseThe research described in this paper was supported by the Research Grant Committee RGC the University of Alabama UA research grant and the teaching assistantship provided by the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics UA The authors would like to thank RGC for their support
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