Case Study: Imperial College of London boosts composite fracture toughness with Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA

Imperial College of London

Researchers at Imperial College of London's aeronautics department sought to improve the strength, fracture response, and damage tolerance of composite materials and graphene by engineering their microstructures. To achieve this, they required advanced simulation capabilities to model these materials from the molecular level up to large-scale structures like aircraft fuselages and wind turbine blades.

The vendor, Dassault Systèmes, provided its SIMULIA Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) software. This solution allowed the researchers to develop custom subroutines and utilize multi-scale modeling techniques to accurately simulate and analyze material behavior. As a result, the team successfully engineered a polymeric microstructure for carbon fiber that demonstrated a 560% increase in fracture toughness compared to the baseline material, a significant step towards creating stronger and safer composite materials for industrial use.

Imperial College of London