Filters for manufacturability in design optimization of variable stiffness composites

In the design optimization of variable stiffness composites, manufacturing constraints imposed by the automated fiber placement technology must be considered. In the present paper, two filters are proposed to address this issue, and they are incorporated into the Shepard interpolation-based design optimization framework developed in our previous studies. The fiber angle arrangement of a composite is represented by a continuous function that interpolates fiber angles at scattered design points. Two filters are appointed for each design point to deal with two typical manufacturing constraints, i.e., fiber curvature and gap/overlap. At each design point, the sensitivity is first filtered in a rectangular region around this point, and by this means the fiber curvature is controlled; then in another rectangular region around this design point, the filtered sensitivities are averaged, and the result is used to update the corresponding design variable. Several numerical examples are investigated, and the results show that the proposed method is effective.