Abstract:An approach to maximize the fundamental frequency of free-form FRP shells using the multiisland genetic algorithm is proposed in this paper. The geometry of free-form FRP shells is generated by the NURBS technique. The creation of structural finite element model and the calculation of the fundamental frequency are carried out by ANSYS. The multi-island genetic algorithm is embedded in Isight and stacking sequence of the free-form FRP shell is optimized by using Isight to integrate ANSYS. Finally,three free-form FRP shells with the positive,negative,positive and negative Gaussian surface are optimized to obtain the optimum stacking sequence. The numerical examples show that the proposed method for stacking sequence optimization of free-form FRP shells is accurate and effective.