Ply thickness tolerances in stacking sequence optimization of multilayered laminate plates

The paper deals with the impact of manufacturing tolerances of plies thicknesses on optimal design of multi-layered laminated plates in compression. It is assumed that the considered tolerances are represented by the maximum acceptable deviation of every individual ply thickness from its nominal design value. The robustness of the optimum is achieved diminishing the buckling load amplitude factor by the product of arbitrary assumed tolerances and appropriate sensitivities. The discussed optimization problem is solved numerically by the direct enumeration method. The proposed approach is illustrated with examples of the rectangular multi-layered laminated plate design under uni- and biaxial compression. The achieved results emphasise the robustness of the proposed method compared to the approaches with ignored tolerances.