JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #92 - October/November 2014 - 36

awards

JEC Innovation Awards Program 2014
Official media supports

The JEC Innovation Awards program has been a major staple in
the composites industry for over 15 years, rewarding the most
interesting and groundbreaking projects of the moment.
This session focused on highly innovative endeavors in simulation
and design.

Composite plate-bending simulation tool
Autodesk Labs (USA) is a part of the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
It represents the public process for sharing innovative new technologies and
collaborative development. The user feedback provided to Labs is focused on
ideas while they're still in an early conceptual stage. The process is applied
to technology that is commercially relevant to customers in design, whether
they're involved in architecture, manufacturing, civil engineering, movies, games
or other industries.

roject Cassidy allows users to
import their own 3D part geometry
and simulate mechanical response
for a specific laminate and load configuration. It walks through the simulation
steps required for composite materials by
helping the user build laminates, define
material orientations of the laminate
on the geometry, and simulate the plate
under bending loads. Project Cassidy
will then graphically inform the user of
the results, including maximum displacements, failure indices and factors of safety.

Reducing time-consuming
software interactions
Cassidy allows Composite Engineers designing complex plates to easily understand
structural performance. It accepts most
standard CAD formats and helps users
design laminates for their specific design
requirements. It can define material orientations on curved surfaces and display
characteristics of structural performance
in a matter of seconds. Now composite

Simulation
Winner: Autodesk Labs

engineers can perform complex simulations early in the design process with
minimal need for detailed interaction with
the software, which is typically required
when performing simulations of composite structures.
Project Cassidy was developed by Autodesk to reach out to Composite Designers
and bring complex simulation early on in
the design process. Autodesk committed
resources to provide a free technology
preview of the software to anyone interested in trying it. It is now available on
Autodesk Labs as a free download. In an
effort to continually push the boundaries
of design and simulation, Autodesk seeks
feedback from the community to drive the

36 jec composites magazine / No92 October - November 2014

direction of future products.
Project Cassidy hoped to bring composite
laminate design and simulation to a larger
audience. Most engineers have little experience with composite materials, and cannot conceptually grasp the requirements
of building laminates, let alone understanding their structural performance through
simulation. Project Cassidy allows entry
level engineers to use composite materials with everyday CAD data. Composites knowledge, and more specifically,
composite simulation knowledge such
as assigning material orientations holds
many designers back from using composite materials. Project Cassidy bridges the
complex simulation world of composites
to every day 3D design.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #92 - October/November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #92 - October/November 2014