CIMNE, Barcelona, 2005 AN EXAMPLE OF GLOBAL STRUCTURAL OPTIMISATION WITH GENETIC ALGORITHMS IN THE AEROSPACE FIELD

In order to pre-size a fuselage section, an optimisation process based on genetic algorithms is developed. This method can deal with non-linear constraints and then enables us to take the instability of the stiffened panel (main fuselage component) into account. Before being applied to the case of a whole fuselage section, the optimisation method is validated through the weight optimisation of a stiffened panel subjected to compressive loads. Optimised solutions are thus assessed and compared with the ones obtained using the well-known S.Q.P method.