This paper describes an optimization study of a spherical composite submersible pressure hull employing a genetic algorithm (GA) in ANSYS. A total of five lay-up arrangements were optimized for three unidirectional composites carbon/epoxy, glass/epoxy, and boron/epoxy. The minimization of the buoyancy factor (B.F) was selected as the design optimization objective. The Tsai-Wu and Tsai-Hill failure criteria and buckling strength factor (λ) were used as the material failure and instability constraints. To determine the effect of geometric non-linearity and imperfections on the optimized design, a non-linear buckling analysis was also carried out for one selected optimized design in ABAQUS. The non-linear buckling analysis was carried out using the modified RIKS procedure, in which the imperfection size changed from 1 to 10 mm. A maximum decrease of 65.937% in buoyancy factor (B.F) over an equivalent spherical steel pressure hull was computed for carbon/epoxy. Moreover, carbon/epoxy displayed larger decreases in buoyancy factor (B.F) in the case of 4 out of a total of 5 lay-up arrangements. The collapse depth decreased from 517.95 m to 412.596 m for a 5 mm lowest mode imperfection. Similarly, the collapse depth decreased from 522.39 m to 315.6018 for a 5 mm worst mode imperfection.
Keywords: buckling analysis; collapse depth; composite spherical pressure hull; genetic algorithm; imperfection sensitivity; optimization; static structural analysis.