Abstract: The starting angle of the variable angle fiber, the ending angle and the lamination order of the laminate are the design variables, and the bending stiffness is the design goal to optimize the variable angle fiber laminate. In the optimization process, the design variables corresponding to the layering order are converted into integer variables by real coding and replacement strategies to realize the conversion between discrete space and continuous space. Due to the difference of optimization process between discrete variables and continuous variables, Improved Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm is proposed in this paper, and different adaptive mutation operators are adopted for different types of optimization variables. The calculation results of related examples show that, regardless of the local optimization and global optimization of the laminate, Improved Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm is more accurate than Differential Evolution Algorithm and Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm, and can effectively avoid "Premature" phenomenon. For the optimization of the bending stiffness of variable angle fiber laminates, Improved Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm proposed in this paper is a relatively efficient and feasible method.

Key words: bending stiffness, variable angle fiber laminate, coding, mutation operator, adaptive differential evolution algorithm