Variable-stiffness composite cylinder design under combined loadings by using the improved Kriging model

The large design freedom of variable-stiffness (VS) composite material presupposes its potential for wide engineering application. Previous research indicates that the design of VS cylindrical structures helps to increase the buckling load as compared to quasi-isotropic (QI) cylindrical structures. This paper focuses on the anti-buckling performance of VS cylindrical structures under combined loads and the efficient optimization design method. Two kinds of conditions, bending moment and internal pressure, and bending moment and torque are considered. Influences of the geometrical defects, ovality, on the cylinder’s performances are also investigated. To increase the computational efficiency, an adaptive Kriging meta-model is proposed to approximate the structural response of the cylinders. In this improved Kriging model, a mixed updating rule is used in constructing the meta-model. A genetic algorithm (GA) is implemented in the optimization design. The optimal results show that the buckling load of VS cylinders in all cases is greatly increased as compared with a QI cylinder.