The Boeing Company

Jeffrey B Gavin

Gerardo Pena

Jeffrey P Baucum

A method of analyzing a structure includes producing a finite element model of the structure having fibers embedded therein, and including one or more plies. This may include performing a discretization of a digital model of the structure in which each ply of the one or more plies is represented by a mesh of finite elements aligned with a direction of uni-directional fibers embedded in the ply. Producing the finite element model may also include adding a fiber-aligned intraply interface element between selected adjacent finite elements in the mesh of each ply to capture potential intraply failure modes. And the method may include performing a finite element method (FEM) failure analysis of the finite element model under a load, with the FEM failure analysis producing an output that indicates an extent of any of the potential intraply failure modes that result from the finite element model under the load.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Jeffrey B Gavin