An analysis framework to support topology optimization of 3D composites structures is presented. Motivated by the presented multidisciplinary design optimization(MDO) formulation of the structural design problem this analysis framework parameterizes stiffness properties of 3D composites to provide macro-geometric aspects such as a topology material index and 3D panel orientation at the composites definition level. The stiffness parameterization also provides stiffness aggregation parameters to define in-plane orthotropy of composite panels with a reduced number of design variables. The MDO problem statement describes two sequentially coupled optimization problems with different detail levels of composite definition at each step. This permits to focus this work solely on the first performance-driven structural optimization problem without theoretically incurring into suboptimality. Two case studies are shown to demonstrate (i) how the analysis framework supports the first (topology) optimization problem in terms of structural topologies that might converge to thin walled structures, and (ii) design space biases presented by the 3D stiffness parameterization.
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