Stacking sequence optimisation of an aircraft wing skin

This paper demonstrates a stacking sequence optimisation process of a composite aircraft wing skin. A two-stage approach is employed to satisfy all sizing requirements of this industrial sized, medium altitude, long endurance drone. In the first stage of the optimisation, generic stacks are used to describe the thickness and stiffness properties of the structure while considering both structural requirements and discrete guidelines such as blending. In the second stage of the optimisation, mathematical programming is used to solve a Mixed Integer Linear Programming formulation of the stacking sequence optimisation. The proposed approach is suitable for real-world thick structures comprised of multiple patches. Different thickness discretisation strategies are examined for the retrieval of the discrete stacking sequences, with each one having a different influence on the satisfaction of all structural constraints across the various sub-components of the wing. The weight penalty introduced between the continuous and final discrete design of the proposed approach is negligible.