Probabilistic optimization of the transmission loss of a composite ribbed panel

Industry is nowadays using composite materials more and more for automotive, aeronautic and space applications because of their good mechanical properties and low weight. This trend is shifting the traditional design paradigm dealing with metal structures to a modified paradigm involving hybrid metal/polymer structures. The new design process, needed to build these structures, requires also a shift from the traditional design approach to a new approach that integrates all the variabilities that hybrid designs introduce, mainly because of the high scattering related with composites manufacturing and assembling process. In this paper, the application of a Reliability-based Design Optimization procedure (RBDO) is proposed to address the variability modeling issues of the frequency dependent acoustic transmission loss of a stiffened composite panel of an aircraft is optimized with respect to two ply thicknesses and four material properties. The objective of this study is to maximize the minimum transmission loss throughout the entire acoustic frequency spectrum under material and geometrical uncertainties in the composite laminate. © (2012) by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Department of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.