Advanced Composites: The Right Stuff if you Have the Right Tools

A recent market study in Aerospace Composites stated that "by any measure, the market for advanced composites in aerospace systems is growing at an unprecedented rate." However, if an aerospace firm doesn't have the engineering tools and manufacturing processes to work effectively with advanced composites, much of that value is lost. Indeed, the advent of innovative new software tools has been critical to encouraging and enabling the increased use of advanced composites.

We're entering what might be called the Third Material Age of Aerospace. Similar to the replacement of wood by aluminum many decades ago, advanced composites have begun to replace aluminum as the structural material of choice in aircraft design. Indeed, the use of advanced composites for the entire fuselage or wing is now the favored alternative in just about every new aircraft program, from very light jets, to the largest airliners.

VISTAGY Inc. developed a strategic partnership with MSC Software to integrate FiberSIM with SimXpert FEA software.

Initially, advanced composites were mostly employed in military aircraft structures. They were gradually introduced in commercial airliners in structures such as the control surfaces, engine nacelles, and empennage and center wing box. The real impetus for the large scale use of advanced composites came with the adoption of the full carbon fiber fuselage and wings on the Boeing 787. The Airbus A350XWB is the first to follow. In about 30 years, composite aircraft parts have gone from small to large, from simple to complex, and from secondary to flight-critical. Now, virtually an entire airplane can be comprised of advanced composites.

In addition, increased worldwide demand for more aircraft is significantly enhancing the pace of production. While manual lay up was the dominant manufacturing process just a few years ago, the size and forecasted production rates of large composite aero structures warranted the introduction of automated manufacturing systems. Ensuring that the aircraft design and analysis effectively integrates all the specifics and constraints of these new manufacturing processes is critical to advancing the use of advanced composites.

In this rapidly evolving world of advanced composites, aerospace firms are faced with three significant challenges, including the need to simplify the complexity of the design, optimize part performance, and reduce engineering and production cycle times.

It is not enough anymore to simply be able to make a part out of advanced composites; parts and assemblies must be optimized and produced on time using close integration between design, analysis and manufacturing.

In about 30 years, composite aircraft parts have gone from small to large, from simple to complex, and from secondary to flight-critical.

With the FiberSIM composite engineering environment, VISTAGY is helping aerospace companies address these challenges. VISTAGY has been at the forefront of advanced composites for more than 15 years by consistently working closely with composite designers, analysts and manufacturing engineers to understand their challenges and concerns.

There are three reasons why FiberSIM is playing a critical role in this evolving process.

First, different composite structures require different design methodologies. Second, VISTAGY has developed strategic partnerships with key industry leaders in analysis and simulation to enable close integration of the design and analysis disciplines. Finally, VISTAGY's specialized engineering environments enable designing for the manufacturing process.

Design Methodology

With composite structures of increasing size and complexity, new and powerful design methodologies have been devised and incorporated into FiberSIM. While the traditional "ply-based" design is applicable to many parts – including highly-contoured composite skins – the more recent "zone-based" design and "structure-based" design are much more powerful and innovative methods for the conceptual and detailed design of aero structures, such as wing panels and large fuselage sections.

Design & Analysis Environment

By developing a strategic partnership with MSC Software to integrate FiberSIM with the SimXpert finite element analysis (FEA) software, a common engineering environment for composites design and analysis now exists. This unified environment facilitates a seamless collaboration between the composites designer and the composites analyst from preliminary sizing to final part validation. It allows them to perform more design iterations within a parallel process so they have the potential to optimize the part based on design specifications, performance, weight and manufacturing costs.

Integrating the Process

There are many solutions to the challenge of manufacturing automation for composites. Fiber placement and tape laying, resin infusion, and composites forming are a few of the developing alternatives. The manufacturing process must be considered an integral part of the design of the part, with all the associated specifics. That is why FiberSIM enables designers and analysts to easily account for manufacturing specifications, constraints and feedback that may affect the design and performance of the part.

VISTAGY's goal has always been to ensure that aerospace companies could manufacture precisely and cost-effectively what was designed with advanced composites. With FiberSIM, that goal may be realized.