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Composite laminates are synthetic structures and there is always a possibility to optimize the design in terms of the number of layers, the material of each layer, the thickness of each layer, and the stacking sequence for the specified loading conditions. Designers need to know how safe is the composite material for chosen application under given loading conditions. With suitable failure criteria, the composite material can be assessed and optimized, which gives a lower failure index or higher safety factor for the specified loading conditions.

This example illustrates the optimization of the stacking sequence in a composite laminate based on the Hashin failure criterion. The composite laminate considered for the analysis has six layers with a symmetric layup. The carbon–epoxy material with transversely isotropic material properties is used as the lamina. The optimization analysis is performed to find the optimum fiber orientation in each layer under specified loading conditions with the objective of minimizing the maximum failure index value in the laminate. The BOBYQA method is applied to find the optimum stacking sequence.