ComPoLyX - Finite-Element Failure Analysis for Composite Structures

Overview

The heterogeneous and anisotropic build-up of laminated composite structures complicates strength and failure analyses based on Finite-Element simulations. ComPoLyX extends the abilities of available Finite-Element packages for the failure analysis of laminated composite structures.

Key features

Simple definition, configuration and combination of desired composite failure criteria.
Efficient evaluation of inverse reserve factors and failure modes for the configured failure criteria combination for every layer of every Finite Element in a composite structure.
Concise all-in-one-plot visualization showing the maximum inverse reserve factor of all criteria of all layers of an element together with the active failure mode.
Concise all-in-one-plot visualization showing the maximum inverse reserve factor over different load-cases with local indication of the most critical load-case.
Unique method to evaluate interlaminar normal stresses in thick curved laminates.
Very efficient ply-wise analysis of strains, stresses and failure criteria due to the sampling-element concept.
Interfaces to ASCII-based data formats of standard FEA packages (ABAQUS, ANSYS, NASTRAN).
Powerful graphical user interface with OpenGL visualization and model tree.
Python scripting interface.

Core Functionality

ComPoLyX evaluates Inverse Reserve Factors (IRFs) as a primary measure for every given failure criterion at all integration points of all layers of all requested Finite Elements in a composite structure. This common measure allows for easy comparison and combination of different failure criteria. Currently the following, fully configurable failure criteria are available:

Maximum Strain
Maximum Stress
Tsai-Wu (2D and 3D)
Tsai-Hill (2D and 3D)
Hashin (2D and 3D)
Puck (simplified, 2D, 3D)
LaRC (2D)
Cuntze (2D and 3D)
Core failure (sandwich)
Face sheet wrinkling (sandwich)

For a given list of element sets, plies or laminate zones ComPoLyX computes the combination of all active failure criteria. The results can be combined within a concise all-in-one plot:

Contour plot with maximum IRF of all criteria of all layers.
Element text showing the active failure mode and the layer index of the first ply failure.

The strains and stresses can be visualized ply / layer wise by components and at bottom, mid and top of each ply / layer. Global plies are maintained within ComPoLyX and can be accessed for post-processing.

Interlaminar Normal Stress Evaluation

ComPoLyX provides a unique method to evaluate the out-of-plane (interlaminar) normal stresses in thick-walled curved laminates modeled with standard layered shell elements. This enables the user to routinely evaluate 3D failure criteria such as Hashin, Puck, Tsai-Wu or Tsai-Hill. This post-processing method is implemented for linear and quadratic layered shell elements.

Platforms and Interfaces

ComPoLyX is available for 32 and 64bit Windows and Linux platforms.
ComPoLyX failure analysis can be applied to linear and quadratic layered shell and solid elements in arbitrary Finite-Element models created with ABAQUS, NASTRAN or ANSYS.
ComPoLyX can be operated through a powerful graphical user interface with OpenGL visualization and model specification tree.
For repeating tasks and batch-mode computations, ComPoLyX logs all user actions to Python scripts.
ComPoLyX employs efficiently multiple cores on shared memory multi-core machines.

Distribution Channel

ComPoLyX is promoted together with ESAComp over the Componeering Inc. distribution channel. More information can be found on the ESAComp web-site.