Abstract
In this paper, the deterministic optimal design for the tail plane made of composite materials is conducted under the deterministic loading condition and compared with that of the metallic materials. Next, the reliability analysis with five random variables such as loading and material properties of unidirectional prepreg is conducted to examine the probability of failure for the deterministic optimal design results. The MATLAB programing is used for reliability analysis combined with FEA S/W(COMSOL) for structural analysis. The laminated composite is assumed to the equivalent orthotropic material using classical laminated plate theory. The response surface methodology and importance sampling technique are adopted to reduce computational cost with satisfying the accuracy in reliability analysis. As a result, structural weight of composite materials is lighter than that of metals in deterministic optimal design. However, the probability of failure for the deterministic optimal design of the tail plane structures is too high to be neglected. The sensitivity of each variable is also estimated using probabilistic sensitivity analysis to figure out which variables are sensitive to failure. The computational cost is considerably reduced when response surface methodology and importance sampling technique are used. The study of the computationally inexpensive method for reliability-based design optimization will be necessary in further work.