The Boeing Company
COMPUTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEFINING A GUIDE HAVING ONE OR MORE DEFINED SETS OF ORDERED PLY ORIENTATIONS

Abstract:

A method, a computing system and a computer program product are provided to efficiently define a guide that includes one or more defined sets of ordered ply orientations. In the context of a method, a plurality of stacking sequence rules are received. The method defines the guide including the one or more defined sets of ordered ply orientations in accordance with a constrained, linear integer optimization formulation. In this regard, the method defines the guide by dividing the guide into a plurality of blocks and determining a plurality of sublaminate stacks that satisfy the stacking sequence rules and that have a size limited by a size of the blocks. For each of the plurality of blocks, the method determines in accordance with the constrained, linear integer optimization formulation a sublaminate stack from among the plurality of sublaminate stacks that is compatible with a respective block, such as by selecting the sublaminate stack for a respective block based upon a number of other sublaminate stacks that have the same ply counts and are compatible with the respective block.