A technique for optimally designing fibre-reinforced laminated plates under in-plane loads for minimum weight with manufacturing uncertainties accounted for

A procedure to design symmetrically laminated plates under buckling loads for minimum mass with manufacturing uncertainty in the ply angle, which is the design variable, is described. A minimum buckling load capacity is the design constraint implemented. The effects of bending–twisting coupling are neglected in implementing the procedure, and the golden section method is used as the search technique, but the methodology is flexible enough to allow any appropriate problem formulation and search algorithm to be substituted. Three different tolerance scenarios are used for the purposes of illustrating the methodology, and plates with varying aspect ratios and loading ratios are optimally designed and compared.