Buckling optimisation of sandwich cylindrical panels

Abstract

In this paper, the buckling load optimisation is performed on sandwich cylindrical panels. A finite element program is developed in MATLAB to solve the governing differential equations of the global buckling of the structure. In order to find the optimal solution, the genetic algorithm Toolbox in MATLAB is implemented. Verifications are made for both the buckling finite element code and also the results from the genetic algorithm by comparisons to the results available in literature. Sandwich cylindrical panels are optimised for the buckling strength with isotropic or orthotropic cores with different boundary conditions. Results are presented in terms of stacking sequence of fibers in the face sheets and core to face sheet thickness ratio.