New Composite Crush Simulation Technology from Dassault

By DE Editors

Dassault Systemes (DS; Paris, France) announced CZone for Abaqus, from the DS SIMULIA (Providence, RI) brand, for simulating the crushing of composite materials.

CZone for Abaqus, a new add-on product for Abaqus FEA software, enables engineers to accelerate the design and evaluation of energy-absorbing composite components and assemblies, says the company.

Based on technology from UK-based Engenuity Ltd., the new product provides the ability to study the crushing behavior of composite structures in automobiles, helicopters, aircraft, trains, and other transport vehicles to protect occupants and cargo from shock or injury during severe impact. Energy-absorbing composite structures offer the possibility of increased safety at a lower cost of both initial manufacture and repair — for example, through modular, replaceable front and rear assemblies.

Engenuity's CZone technology includes direct implementation of crush-based element force generation and failure for defined "crush zones," which are typically located at the forward edges of a product. CZone for Abaqus determines the extent of composite material crushing as well as other modes of potential failure — such as composite delamination, fracture, and buckling.

SIMULIA is the Dassault Systemes brand that delivers a scalable portfolio of realistic simulation solutions including the Abaqus product suite for unified finite element analysis, multiphysics solutions for insight into challenging engineering problems, and SIMULIA SLM for managing simulation data, processes, and intellectual property.

For more information, visit SIMULIA or Dassault Systemes.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.