A Monte Carlo procedure was developed for optimizing symmetric fiber reinforced composite laminates such that the weight is minimum and the Tsai-Wu strength failure criterion is satisfied in each ply. The laminate may consist of several materials in cluding an idealized core, and may be subjected to several sets of combined in-plane and bending loads. The procedure yields the number of plies, the fiber orientation, and the material of each ply and the material and thickness of the core. A user friendly computer code was written for performing the numerical calculations. Laminates optimized by the code were compared to laminates resulting from existing optimization methods. These comparisons showed that the present Monte Carlo procedure is a useful and efficient tool for the design of composite laminates.
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