Influence of Initial Paths of Reinforcements for Optimization of the Flexibility of CFRP Plates

The combination of structural optimization with the orientation of the reinforcement paths in plates makes it possible to obtain excellent mechanical properties. Added to this, the exploration of the anisotropy of these materials is an effective tool for designing components produced in composites. This optimization can be performed by using a curve that represents the path of the fibers. In these cases, one of the factors that influences the efficiency of the optimization algorithm is the initial placement of the fibers. In this context, with the aim of investigating the influence of the initial directions on the result of the objective function, the optimization of B-splines was carried out in the work, which represented carbon fibers inserted in epoxy resin matrix plates. Thus, seeking to reduce flexibility, three distinct structures with different boundary conditions were optimized using linear programming. In each of them, rectilinear reinforcements were initially implemented and optimized from four different initial directions. The plate thickness, cross-sectional area of reinforcements, and number of reinforcements are identical. From the final results, the difference in flexibility and morphology of the reinforcements in each initial placement was noticeable. The final structures point to two factors for obtaining lower flexibility. The positioning of the ends of the reinforcements close to the supports and the point of application of the force obtain better results. Furthermore, when the distribution of filaments has a distribution that reduces the free areas of reinforcements in the matrices, it tends to reduce flexibility as well.