A DESIGN ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMINATED FIBER-REINFORCED THICK COMPOSITE-MATERIALS

The research described herein concerns the integration of several components of engineering software using a relational database. More specifically, a conceptual finite element material preprocessing system for laminated fiber-reinforced thick composite materials is studied. In this computer-aided analysis (CAA) system, a materials database is integrated with several software components, including commercially available finite element analysis (FEA) programs and preprocessors, and tools for the design of laminated composite materials. The system focuses on assembling, manipulating and using composite materials data, resulting in the transfer of 2-D and 3-D composite materials property data into a finite element analysis program. The system is life-cycle in nature, supporting a composite through testing, analysis and design. It offers great versatility in its ability to use raw ply data from any source, design layups, and generate laminate properties and FEA materials data files. Despite the fact that such integrated systems are not new in many domains, they have not been successfully introduced to the realm of composite materials analysis and design. This outcome is due largely to the nature of the materials themselves and the overhead they bring to the development of a successful life-cycle model.