Structural Engineering is the art of designing producable composite parts with low weight and best possible performances.

Material modeling in Structural Engineering

What is Structural Engineering ?

The design of composite parts is a challenge due to the many influencing factors that impact the targeted performance. Composite material properties are highly sensitive to changes in their microstructure. Those changes can arise from the manufacturing of the part.

Integrative simulations take into account local effects arising from the manufacturing process. Microstructure information is fed into a micromechanical material model to describe realistically the distribution of material properties over the part. Results from coupled analyses can give quantitative correlation with the performance of the part as observed in measurements.

In the simulation strategy the micromechanical model is used as a tool to map the influence of manufacturing onto the material properties as found in the part.

Structural designers know the performance of their composite parts best. Modeling of composite parts is often performed in collaborative efforts that cover:

  • Design of composite structures
  • Investigations on the manufacturing to assess the feasibility to produce the part
  • Integrative strategies to understand the performance of the part in its application environment under the influence of the manufacturing process

What modeling tools for Structural Engineering ?

A full set of tools is available to offer the access to structural engineering for multi-scale modeling experts:

Digimat-MAP

Supports the multi-scale approach by allowing the transfer of data between dissimilar meshes. Capabilities include super-positioning, quality assessment for mapping and visualization of the results.

Digimat-CAE

Covers interfaces to manufacturing simulation, computer tomography and FEA software. Offers GUI guidance for setting up coupled analyses and supports this approach via embedded Digimat Plug-Ins for native FEA pre-processors.


What modeling solutions for Structural Engineering ?

Digimat solutions cover fixed scenarios of structural composite design for non-experts in multi-scale modeling:

Digimat-RP

Integrative simulations for the design of fiber reinforced plastic parts

Digimat-HC

Virtual laboratory for the design of honeycomb composite sandwich panels