A hybrid method of FEM, modified NSGAII and TOPSIS for structural optimization of sandwich panels with corrugated core

Abstract

Low weight and high load capacity are remarkable advantages of sandwich panels which make them more considerable by structure designers. In this paper, multi-objective optimization of sandwich panels with corrugated core is carried out using modified Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGAII) considering two objective functions: the structure’s weight and deflection. Deflection of the panel as one of the objective functions is calculated using finite element analysis by commercial software ANSYS. To employ this FE model in the multi-objective optimization process, the software products ANSYS and MATLAB have been coupled together during the run time. Finally, nearest to ideal point (NIP) method and technique for ordering preferences by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method are used to find the some trade-off optimum design points from all non-dominated optimum design points represented by the Pareto fronts.