Design of Composite Structures
The area design of composite structures covers the development of lightweight structures of fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRP) for new applications as well as the substitution of existing designs made of other materials. Finite Element program systems (especially ANSYS) with specialized meshing and CAD programs (ANSA, Pro-Engineer) and inhouse developed subroutines for modeling and description of strength and failure mechanisms of FRP (strength criteria, degradation, non-linear material models, unit cell modeling, variance analysis) are applied.
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| Economic Sectors | Applications (Examples) |
|---|---|
| Aerospace | Fuselage and tail structures, high lift components |
| Automotive | Body-in-white and under-carriage structures |
| Engineering | Highly accelerated machine parts |
| Sports and Recreation | Bicycle frames |
| Military and Security | Load bearing structures |
| Energy | Pressure vessels |
Special Expertise:
- FE routines (in-house development) for 2D/3D strength calculation (Puck´s action plane criterion) including degradation analysis
- Consideration of nonlinear material behavior
- Analytical laminate analysis tool LION (in-house development)
- Optical 3D strain and deformation measurement system in millimeter up to meter scale with FEA interface (ANSYS), acoustic emission and phased array ultrasonic measurement equipment
Typical Materials
- GFRP
- CFRP
- Continuously fiber reinforced polymers
Typical Questions
- Is it possible to substitute metallic parts by an appropriate composite design?
- Can an optimized design of a fiber reinforced composite part lead to weight reduction or higher performance?
- Can the cause of damage of a fiber reinforced composite part be established by a post-damage analysis and how can damage be prevented using a realistic modeling approach?