Constraint-based User Interface for Integrating Geospatial Data Sources

This proposal centers on developing an improved finite element analysis for composite structures that will allow Navy designers to more accurately predict structural failure than is currently possible. Improved failure prediction capabilities will removea large part of the uncertainty associated with using advanced composite materials and hence facilitate more composite materials into Navy fleet use. Benefits of increased use of composite structures include reduced costs, lower weights, and reducedelectromagnetic signatures.The analysis approach is a microstructural based theory and associated numerical algorithm for extracting, virtually without a time penalty, the continuum stress and strain fields for the constituents (matrix and reinforcement) of a composite in the courseof a routine structural finite element analysis. Failure criteria are then applied at the constituent level. Critical components of the analysis include the ability to handle woven fabric composites exhibiting rate and temperature dependent materialbehavior.The finite element implementation of this theory is referred to as Multicontinuum Theory (MCT) which reflects the coexisting continua within a typical composite material. MCT is an enabling technology that provides the designer with a window into thestress/strain behavior of a composite structure at its most basic level, i.e., the individual constituents.