Optimal Design Study of Vibro-Acoustic Resistance of Porous Foam Composite Laminates

Optimal design study of vibro-acoustic resistance of porous foam composite laminates (PFCLs) is presented in this paper. A dynamic model of the PFCLs subjected to the plane acoustic excitation load is firstly proposed with consideration of upper and lower composite skins and a uniform porous foam. The vibration and acoustic solutions of the PFCLs with acoustic energy excitation are further acquired using the first-order shear deformation theory, the finite element method, the Rayleigh integral approach, the mode superposition technique, etc. Subsequently, a vibro-acoustic optimization model is established by accounting for appropriate design variables and constraints, in which resonance responses, sound transmission losses, and overall structural mass are taken as objective functions, respectively, and the artificial immune clonal selection algorithm is adopted to improve the efficiency in the optimization calculations. After such an algorithm and the current model are thoroughly validated, single-objective, dual-objective, and multi-objective optimizations are undertaken on the PFCLs to achieve the optimal design parameters. The research results indicate that it is hard to enhance the vibro-acoustic resistance and lightweight property of the PFCLs simultaneously, which means some compromise results of design parameters need to be chosen. It is suggested to determine the concerned optimal design results by referring to the nearby turning points associated with the Pareto-optimal solutions.