A mathematical modeling approach to optimize composite parts placement in autoclave

The role of composite materials in the development of new advanced products for many industrial applicationsis strictly dependent on the reduction of materials and processing costs. High-performance composites areusually manufactured utilizing prepregs for lamination and an autoclave, where the curing process of thethermosetting matrix is completed by increasing temperature and pressure. Several composite parts arecommonly cured in the same autoclave leading to nonuniform thermal histories, which depend on theirposition inside the autoclave, and on the thermal inertia of parts. In this paper, we propose a mixed integerlinear programming model to optimize the composite part placement into an autoclave. The main decisionvariables determine the orientation and placement of parts in the autoclave, while the objective function isformulated to minimize the maximum overexposure of the curing process. The validity for practical use ofour model has been tested on a set of real cases