Stiffness and permeability multi-objective optimization of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic mesostructures using homogenization method

This paper presents a stiffness and permeability multi-objective optimization method for carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic mesostructures based on a homogenization method. To reduce the computational cost of dealing with multiple design variables for complicated fiber mesostructures, we generate and extract effective design variables from optimization results derived from a smaller number of design variables. We applied the proposed method to optimization of the in-plane and out-of-plane stiffness and permeability of non-crimp fabrics. The optimization results showed that the application of effective design variables enabled attainment of an improved elastic modulus and permeability. From investigations of the obtained optimized design, we clarified the trade-off relationship between the elastic modulus and permeability, and elucidated the effects of dimensions of non-crimp fabric mesostructures on the elastic modulus and permeability.