Selective Reinforcement Optimization for Composite Laminates

TL;DR

A new method called Selective Reinforcement Optimization (SRO) is introduced to design lightweight composite laminates for additive manufacturing by identifying and reinforcing critical stress areas.

Contribution

SRO introduces a stress-driven, layer-wise optimization framework that directly generates CAD-compatible reinforcement patches for additive manufacturing.

Findings

SRO achieves 10–30% weight reduction while keeping failure indices below unity.

The method converges in about 100 iterations and generates manufacturing-ready geometries.

Unlike traditional topology optimization, SRO eliminates the need for post-processing by directly outputting discrete patch designs.

Abstract

Composite laminates designed for additive manufacturing require efficient material distribution to minimize weight while maintaining structural integrity. Traditional topology optimization methods, however, produce continuous density fields incompatible with layer-based fabrication. This work presents Selective Reinforcement Optimization (SRO), a stress-driven methodology that converts uniformly loaded laminate layers into localized reinforcement regions, or “patches”, at critical stress concentrations. The approach employs layer-wise statistical analysis of Tsai–Wu failure indices to identify high-variance layers; applies DBSCAN clustering to extract spatially coherent stress regions while rejecting artificial concentrators; and generates CAD-compatible and manufacturing-ready boundary geometries through a custom concave hull algorithm. The method operates iteratively in dual modes: lightweighting progressively removes full layers and replaces them with localized regions when the structure is safe, while strengthening adds reinforcement without layer removal when failure criteria are approached. Case studies demonstrate weight reductions of 10–30% while maintaining failure indices below unity, with typical convergence achieved within 100 iterations. Unlike classical topology optimization, which requires extensive post-processing, SRO directly outputs discrete patch geometries compatible with composite additive manufacturing, offering a computationally efficient and production-oriented framework for the automated design of layered composite structures.

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