The homogenized material optimization (HMO) problem is a novel structural optimization problem that we have developed for optimization of fiber reinforced composite structures. In the HMO problem we apply a smeared-out approach to model the material properties of fiber reinforced composite materials. The objective of the HMO problem is to maximize the stiffness of a composite structure by means of finding the optimal distribution of composite material, belonging to a fixed set of fiber orientations, across the design domain. In order to obtain manufacturable solutions, we have introduced a linear density filter as a restriction method to control the thickness variation across the design domain. To examine the effect of the density filter on the thickness variation and the objective function value of composite structures, obtained in the HMO problem, we have performed numerical tests for different load cases, mesh densities and range of the filter radius.

It is observed that for the present problem the thickness variation was mesh-independent. Both the thickness variation and objective function value depend on the load case used in the HMO problem. For all load cases the thickness variations exhibits an approximately piece-wise linear behaviour for increased filter radius. Furthermore, it was observed that an increase of filter radius would result in an moderate increase in objective function value for the solutions obtained from the HMO problem. From these results we conclude that by using a density filter, the HMO problem can be used to obtain manufacturable designs for composite structures.

In the present work we propose a two phase composite structure optimization method based on a novel material homogenization approach. It consists of a stiffness and a lay-up optimization problem, respectively, with the aim of obtaining manufacturable composite structures with maximized stiffness properties. The method is applied to a cantilever plate, and numerical tests were performed for three load cases and for a number of parameters settings. The results show that the proposed method can obtain manufacturable composite structures with maximized stiffness properties. In the first phase of the method, the stiffness optimization problem provides an optimal distribution of the composite material, such that the stiffness properties of the structureare maximized. The second phase, the lay-up optimization problem, provides a manufacturable lay-up sequence of discrete plies which attempts to retain the stiffness properties of the structure from the first phase.