A Two‐Level Procedure for the Global Optimum Design of Composite Modular Structures–Application to the Design of an Aircraft Wing

This work concerns a two‐level procedure for the global optimum design of composite modular structures. The case‐study considered is the least weight design of a stiffened wing‐box for an aircraft structure. The method is based on the use of the polar formalism and on a genetic algorithm. In the first level of the procedure, the optimal structure is designed as it was composed by a single equivalent layer, while a laminate realizing the optimal structure is found in the second level. The method is able to automatically find the optimal number of modules, no simplifying assumptions are used, and it can be easily generalized to other problems. The work is divided into two parts: the theoretical formulation in this first part, the genetic procedure and some numerical examples in the second one.