Review of the mechanical performance of variable stiffness design fiber-reinforced composites

Variable stiffness design (VSD) has been paid more attention for its capability of further exploiting the potential of fiber-reinforced composite in composite structure design. VSD under different mechanical property indexes is reviewed in this paper. The review mostly focuses on strength, buckling, frequency, and other more common mechanical indices. Subsequently, the usage of VSD method for several years is briefly summarized. Some successful tests about variable stiffness composite parts are introduced and the experiment results are also addressed. The article summarizes the research situation from both perspectives based on a number of papers about the VSD of composite materials in recent years and provides theoretical reference and basic knowledge to new researchers.