Optimal orientation of orthotropic materials using an energy based method

In this paper, an energy based method is proposed to determine the optimal orientation of orthotropic materials under static loading. Instead of assuming that the strain or stress fields are fixed with respect to orientational variables, the dependency of strain and stress fields on material orientation is explored by introducing an energy factor in the inclusion model. From the derivations, the strain based method and the stress based method can be recovered and their limitations are discussed. Numerical examples from these methods are presented and compared.