Optimal design of laminated composite plates to maximise fundamental frequency using MFD method

This paper deals with optimal fibre orientations of symmetrically laminated fibre reinforced composite structures for maximising the fundamental frequency of small-amplitude. A set of fiber orientation angles in the layers are considered as design variable. The Modified Feasible Direction method is used in order to obtain the optimal designs. The effects of number of layers, boundary conditions, laminate thicknesses, aspect ratios and in-plane loads on the optimal designs are studied.