Material optimization: bridging the gap between conceptual and preliminary design

This paper presents a collection of tools for conceptual structure design. The underlying model is the ‘free material optimization’ problem. This problem gives the best physically attainable material and is considered as a generalization of the sizing/shape optimization problem. The method is supported by powerful optimization and numerical techniques, which allow us to work with bodies of complex initial design and with very fine finite-element meshes. The computed results are realized by composite materials. We consider a particular class of fibre-reinforced composite materials, manufactured by the so-called tape-laying technology. In the post-processing phase, stress/strain-trajectories are plotted which indicate how to place these tapes; they also show the proposed thickness of the tapes. Several examples demonstrate the efficiency of this approach to conceptual design of engineering structures.