LAMPAT: A Software Tool for Analyzing and Designing Thick Laminated Composite Structures.
Abstract
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has recently developed an innovative analysis and design software tool for evaluating the mechanical performance of thick section laminated composite material structures. The software tool has been given the name LAMPAT and is intended to be used in conjunction with traditional finite element analysis codes. LAMPAT implements a 'smearing-unsmearing' methodology, an approach that is often employed in the structural analysis of thick multi-ply laminated composite structures Chou, Carleone, and Hsu 1972. As a pre-processing tool, LAMPAT is used to generate the effective, homogeneous, three-dimensional properties of a laminated medium for input into traditional finite element structural models. As a post-processing tool, LAMPAT is used to conduct a detailed, ply-level-based failure assessment of the structure. Results are uniquely organized in such a manner that when portrayed graphically, enable one to clearly visualize the critically loaded regions within a structure and identify the specific failure modes of concern. Failure assessment information, which can be based on a wide variety of lamina failure criteria, includes contour plots of (1) safety factor, (2) critical ply identification, and (3) the specific mode of ply failure. In this report, the theoretical basis for LAMPAT is reviewed, and illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the utility of the software. This report is also intended to serve as a user manual for the software. LAMPAT represents a computationally efficient engineering design tool which greatly simplifies the three-dimensional failure assessment of thick section multi-layer composite structures. (MM)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA301753
Entities
People
- Bruce P. Burns
- Christopher P. Hoppel
- Travis A. Bogetti
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory