published by JEC Group - 4 April 2007
In brief, composites consist of relatively strong, stiff fibers engineered from two or more constituent materials. Because of their high performance capabilities, they have been adopted by leading players in the aerospace industry to build a broad range of structures. Prior to the adoption of composites, the aerospace industry manufactured aircraft using sheet metal, which tends to be heavy and corrosive. Dassault Systèmes’ Composite solutions enhance aircraft performance, accelerate design time, ensure precision, and facilitate secure collaboration.

Challenges of composites
The most common challenge with designing and building composites parts is cost. The raw materials are expensive and so is the cost of processing them; however the performance benefits outweigh these costs. Another important challenge is cycle time. Cycle time can be extended because of the complexity of data management and the required number of plies. Communication is another important challenge because of the number of different people and teams involved. The lack of concurrent engineering can be the cause of misunderstandings, errors, delays or at the very least can considerably slow the communication. One of the recurrent challenges is the difficulty of predicting the behavior of the part at different levels.

Dassault Systèmes’ PLM composites solutions
There are two important aspects to aerospace composite design. First, the structure must be designed from a variety of synthetic materials such as carbon- and glass-fiber-reinforced plastic or particulates. The structure then must undergo behavioral simulation and be tested to ensure its manufacturability. CATIA sets the stage for composites design with its advanced technologies, ease of use, and facilitated coordination between the design and the manufacturing. In fact, CATIA enables to design composite parts with precision and prepares it for manufacturing so that the fabricated product matches exactly with the design specifications.

In its new CATIA PLM Express offer, Dassault Systèmes (DS) provides a suite of modular products to ensure the design and the manufacturability of composites parts. It is a process-oriented suite of tools for composite designers and manufacturers that follows a specification-driven and feature-based approach and is fully integrated with the CATIA platform. That helps the users concentrate on the design, not on the tools. It aims to address the needs and requirements of composites processes from preliminary to detailed design, manufacturing preparation and downstream to the shop floor, while facilitating concurrent engineering and collaboration with cross-functional disciplines and enabling knowledge-based engineering.

Benefiting from the power of CATIA V5
CATIA composites applications take advantage of the CATIA V5 infrastructure. For example the powerful synchronization mechanisms of CATIA enable manufacturing parameters to be managed at the early stage of the design process to predict the composites’ behavior on complex surfaces, eliminating costly change orders and ensuring producible parts. This is very important in order to permit partners to closely collaborate with OEMs with regards to the composite design process. Another example is the specific CATIA V5 relational design capabilities which make change management easier and quicker through automatic updates to reduce the impact of changes on the design-to-manufacturing process. This ability eliminates the need to restart the full design phase, saving time and expenses. A last example is the ability to create and reuse rules instantiated in stacking sequences, to take into account industrial standards and corporate know-how.

Leading the aerospace composites market
Dassault Systèmes maintains important research investments in the composite domain and constantly exploits the latest technologies. Strong partnerships with leading companies provide DS’ customers with the best solution on the market for integrated end-to-end composite part design and manufacturing.

With more than 25 years of experience in the aerospace industry, Dassault Systèmes has built and maintained long-term close partnerships with major aircraft makers, such as Boeing and Airbus, thanks to its proven 3D PLM Solutions. Its contribution to composites design has resulted in the success of many aircraft programs.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that the development and knowledge of composites used in the aerospace industry is an ongoing process. At the same time, the considerable benefits offered by composites have yet to be fully exploited and as knowledge and understanding grow, composite materials will play an increasingly significant role. Dassault Systèmes offers a realistic and practical suite of solutions so that the aerospace industry can accurately design and deliver their products right the first time.

Philippe Savignard
CATIA Composites Solution, Dassault Systèmes
Tarik Bounit
CATIA Marketing, Dassault Systèmes