Coupled multi-disciplinary methods for structural reliability and affordability

Abstract

A computational simulation method is presented for Non-Deterministic Multidisciplinary Optimization of engine composite materials and structures. A hypothetical engine duct made with ceramic matrix composites (CMC) is evaluated probabilistically in the presence of combined thermo-mechanical loading. The structure is tailored by quantifying the uncertainties in all relevant design variables such as fabrication, material, and loading parameters. The probabilistic sensitivities are used to select critical design variables for optimization. In this paper, results of the non-deterministic optimization are presented with probabilistic lower bounds of 0.001 and upper bounds of 0.999. © 2012 WIT Press.