Optimization is one of the critical phases of product development, were engineers spend tremendous amount of time and effort in finding an optimized design. Today we have dedicated software’s like Isight (parametric optimization) and TOSCA (non-parametric optimization) which guides through the critical phases of product development, by rapidly exploring the design space by utilizing the computation power. 

Presently composite are widely adopted in many engineering applications because of its superior advantages it offers over other engineering material like excellent strength to weight ratio, manufacturability, durability, etc.. To perform an optimization study on composite structures are highly challenging as Composite structures would involves multiple Design Variables (DV) such as number of plies, ply thickness, ply orientations, topology of the structures and others. Below workflow shows optimization of composite panel to increase the bulking load by varying the number of plies, ply thickness and orientation of the plies using Abaqus and Isight, where Abaqus is used to perform Eigen value Bucking analysis and Isight is used to drive the optimization process.             

 Problem Definition: 

 Objective: Optimization of number of composite plies for maximizing load carrying capacity for the first buckling load.

 Design Variables defined:

•             Number of plies

•             Thickness of plies

•             Ply orientation

 Constraint defined:

•             Minimize the number of plies

•             Minimize the mass of the laminate structure

Below is the cam video highlighting the Abaqus and Isight workflow.

Thought Abaqus, Tosca, fe-safe and Isight are different products, SIMULIA has introduced a unified licensing scheme referred to as “Extended Tokens” wherein users can access these products from a single pool of tokens!!!  Highlighting the advantage of Extended Tokens brings to the above workflow: The workflow involves two of SIMULIA’s products - Abaqus and Isight. One can execute both these products with their respective standalone licenses or alternately  one can execute the above workflow with a single pool of licenses i.e. through Extended Tokens. The biggest advantage Extended Tokens brings in to an organization is that with single purchase of Extended Tokens, one can access all SIMULIA products!!!