Surrogated based optimization of stress concentration in Al-2024 T3 plate with elliptical cutout under uniaxial loading

Abstract

Metal plates with different cutout shapes are commonly used in various engineering applications. Cutouts are unavoidable in structural design as they are needed for practical reasons, such as reducing the structure’s weight and providing access to other parts. This paper investigates the stress concentration induced in Al-2024 T3 plate with an elliptical cutout under a tensile load, experimentally and numerically. Practical tensile test and strain gauge results measure the generated stress concentration in Al-2024 T3 plate. A finite element model is created to analyze the stress concentration factor (SCF) in Al 2024 T3 plate under uniaxial loading. The numerical model is validated against the experimental and analytical results. The influence of the elliptical cutout orientation angle (φ) on SCF was investigated. The results showed that SCF increases with increasing elliptical cutout orientation angle (φ = 0°) to (φ= 90°). However, adding auxiliary holes around the central elliptical cutout enhances the stress distribution and reduces SCF in the range (1.9 to 25%). Surrogated-based optimization is used to build response surface models for predicting optimal SCF and removal mass (RM). Multi-objective optimization is formulated to minimize SCF and maximize RM. The results show that increasing AH diameter leads to minimizing SCF and maximizing RM for the plate with an elliptical cutout that is restrained to be greater than or equal to 45 (φ ≥ 45°). Pareto frontier offers reliable, optimal solutions of SCF and RM based on input design parameters, including the orientation angle and auxiliary hole diameters.