With stricter requirements on performance and weight, in many cases, composite materials are now becoming the natural choice of designers and engineers given their desirable characteristics such as low weight and high strength. Material properties can be tuned so they are directional – stiffer in one direction while compliant in another for example.

1. Innovation Intelligence®
Advanced Design, Analysis and Optimization
of Composite Structures
ATCx Houston
October 8th, 2015
Warren Dias
Business Development Manager

2. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Agenda
Design, Analysis and Optimization of …
Laminate Composites
Micromechanical Enhancement
Multiscale Systems

3. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
HyperWorks Past, Present and FutureHyperWorksv14+
Manufacturing Simulations
Draping, Forming, Curing
Moldflow | FiberSim | ESI
HyperMesh
Modern Ply Based
Composites Pre-Processing
Visualizations
Visually Verify the Model
OptiStruct
Composites Design
Optimization
HyperView
Composites Post-Processing
and Failure Analysis
Macro Solver
Multiscale Engine
Micro Solver
Mechanical, multiphysics, fatigue,
uncertainty quantification
Nastran | Abaqus | LS-DYNA
RADIOSS + OPTISTRUCT

4. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Composites Design Process Overview
• Ply based modeling approach
• Incorporate manufacturing requirements
• Preserve ply book rules
Number of Plies
Ply Bundle Sizing
Phase 2
Laminate Stacking
Stacking Sequence Optimization
Phase 3
Rule based
ply shuffling
45
-45 0
0
0
45
-45 45
90
90 
-45
45 -45
0
0
-45 90
45
(a) Ply Level (b) Superply Level
45
-45
0
0
45
-45
90
90 
-45
45
0
0
-45
45
(a) Ply Level
Ply Shapes
Free Sizing
Phase 1
x
y
z

5. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Design and Optimization of Composite Material
Initial Design
Final Design
Composite Free-Size Optimization
What are the most efficient ply shapes?
Composite Size Optimization
How many plies of each ply shape to meet engineering targets?
Composite Shuffling
What is the exact stacking sequence to meet
manufacturing requirements?
Ply Slicing
Determines ply shapes

6. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Underbelly Fairing Optimization
Aircraft underbelly
fairing
Model
Representation
Composite free
size optimization
– optimized ply
shapes
Ply shape
interpretation
Ply sizing optimization –
optimized ply thicknesses
Ply stacking sequence
optimization

7. Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Buckling load cases by 10% & deflection improved by
more than 35% without increase in overall weight

8. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Metal vs. “Black Aluminum” vs. Composite
• Compliance = 5.15e+05
• Mass = 215 kg
• Compliance = 5.34e+05
• Mass = 184 kg
• Mass Savings: 14%
(w.r.t. Baseline)
• Compliance = 4.89e+05
• Mass = 146 kg
• Mass Savings: 20%
(w.r.t. Black Aluminum)
• Mass Savings: 32%
(w.r.t. Baseline)

9. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Agenda
Design, Analysis and Optimization of …
Laminate Composites
Micromechanical Enhancement
Multiscale Systems

10. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Micromechanical Enhancement of Ply-level Results
• Multi-continuum phase average theory (for stress)
TTM fff
 }{}{][}{  TTM mmm
 }{}{][}{ 
Average
Fiber Stress
Enhanced
Ply Stress
Mechanical Stress in
the Fiber and
Thermal Effects due
to Ply Orientation
CTE Mismatch
Thermal
Fiber Stress
Thermal Effects in
the Fiber due to
Fiber/Matrix CTE
Mismatch
*Can not obtain
from FEA
=
=
+
+ Average
Matrix Stress
Enhanced
Ply Stress
Mechanical Stress in
the Matrix and
Thermal Effects due
to Ply Orientation
CTE Mismatch
Thermal
Matrix Stress
Thermal Effects in
the Matrix due to
Fiber/Matrix CTE
Mismatch
*Can not obtain
from FEA
= +
= +

11. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Micromechanical Enhancement of Ply-level Results
Ply level design
Micromechanically
enhanced design
OHT-TL-OO-PLY
Optimized Stacking Sequence [−45a/0a/45a/90a/0c/90c/03
d/90c/02
d/0a]s
Optimized Laminate Thickness n/a
Optimized Mass 0.056 kg (0.123 lbs)
OHT-TL-OO-MME
Optimized Stacking Sequence [−45a/0a/45a/90a/−45d/02
c/45d/90c/0d/0b]s
Optimized Laminate Thickness n/a
Optimized Mass 0.053 kg (0.118 lbs)
0o Ply Shapes 90o Ply Shapes 45o Ply Shapes −45o Ply Shapes
0o Ply Shapes 90o Ply Shapes 45o Ply Shapes −45o Ply Shapes

12. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Agenda
Design, Analysis and Optimization of …
Laminate Composites
Micromechanical Enhancement
Multiscale Systems

13. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Multiscale Systems
Scale 1
Fiber/Matrix
Scale 2
UD ply
Scale 3
Laminate
Scale 0
Constituent microstructure
Scale 1
Homogenized metal
Scale 0
Constituent microstructure

14. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Why Multiscale Design and Analysis?
𝜎 𝑝𝑙𝑦
𝜎 𝑓𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟
𝜎 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑥
𝐸 𝑝𝑙𝑦
𝐸 𝑓𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟
𝐸 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑥
Scale 2 – Ply
Scale 1 – Fiber/Matrix
• Laminate scale – scale 3
• Laminate material properties
• Laminate stresses
• Laminate allowables
• Ply scale – scale 2
• Ply material properties
• Ply stresses
• Ply allowables
Multiscale methods: accurately predict material behavior
• Fiber/matrix scale – scale 1
• Constituent properties
• Constituent stresses
• Ply/constituent allowables
• Modeling at scale 1 is prohibitive!

15. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Multiscale Methods with MDS Mechanical
Unit cell model
definition
Linear material
characterization
• Forward
• Inverse
Reduced order
model
computation
Nonlinear
material
characterization
Macro solver
interface
Linear
Region
Nonlinear
Region
Damage Law Ultimate
Failure
Strain
Stress

16. Copyright © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Multiscale Design and Optimization

17. Thank You!