Methods to Streamline Laminate Composite Analysis and Optimization

Abstract

AbstractMajor market growth in the area of advanced composite materials has spurred the development of methods to streamline the analysis and optimization of these materials. A computer tool has been developed to automatically create a finite element model with greater detail than previous zone-based methods. This tool can save practitioners dozens of hours during the pre-processing stage of analysis. It can also be used in an optimization to find the best possible lay-up for a laminate composite part. A method to automatically apply boundary conditions and solve the finite element model is also presented. This method is used in conjunction with the automated composite finite element tool in an iSight optimization to optimize the modal frequencies of a composite wing model.