New data, slicker software, and innovative support for composite simulation
Granta Design will be at JEC World 2016 (Pavilion 6, Booth A63) in Paris (March 8-10) demonstrating the new Composites QED data module, which provides authoritative test data for composite materials. When combined with updated materials information management software, it eases composite qualification and equivalency studies. Granta will also speak in the scientific program, discussing a collaborative project in which the company’s tools support composite simulation.
Granta software helps engineering organizations to be more efficient in their development and application of composite materials, to better understand material behavior and properties in order to optimize performance, and to support a rigorous composite qualification process. More information is available at a web seminar on this topic on February 24.
Composite materials in sectors such as Aerospace must be qualified for use, validating their performance through extensive testing. Smart use of third-party data can streamline this time-consuming and complex task. For example, if users can compare in-house tests to those for similar, established composite systems, they can eliminate invalid results, or establish equivalency (proving that their process produces the same properties as the established material, thus reducing the need for further analysis). Through a long-standing collaboration with the US National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP), Granta already provides customer organizations with fast, digital access to NCAMP’s widely-respected composite design data, material pedigree data, test results, and reports. Now, the new Composites QED data module adds more than 7,500 raw data curves from NCAMP testing, creating an outstanding resource against which to compare in-house test results.
This reference data is of most value within a system that can also manage the company’s own materials test data, enabling seamless comparison. Such a system is essential for best practice composite qualification, since this process typically generates large quantities of complicated test data which must be aggregated and analyzed, and which must be traceable—i.e., the data and analysis created during the process must be retained and open to inspection.
This can all be achieved through GRANTA MI™, the industry-standard software for systematic materials information management. At JEC World, Granta will show the recently-released GRANTA MI Version 9, which enables more information management workflows, enhances support for simulation, and offers fast and reliable performance.
GRANTA MI supports simulation by helping to ensure the quality of the materials data required as input and by capturing simulation results so that they can be stored, shared, and applied. The new Composites QED data module is also useful for simulation, since it supports the validation of simulation results against experimental data.
At JEC World, Granta’s Dr Donna Dykeman will speak about the use of GRANTA MI to support the UK-Datacomp project, enabling crash simulation of composites for Automotive applications. Dr Dykeman will speak at 3pm on Wednesday, March 9 in Room 504.
GRANTA MI is developed in collaboration with the many engineering enterprises that are using it to curate their corporate materials knowledge. These include members of the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) such as Airbus Helicopters, Boeing, Honeywell, NASA, and Rolls-Royce. The MDMC Composites Sub-Committee has been instrumental in helping Granta to fine-tune GRANTA MI data structures and tools for the needs of composite data management.
We’re pleased to be demonstrating enhancements to our composite software and data, the fruits of collaboration with our customers and with the NCAMP organization. Our goal is to enable a rigorous, systematic, documented composite qualification process, from test request to design allowable.
Dr Patrick Coulter - Chief Operating Officer, Granta Design