Framework for durability analysis of composite structures in the automotive industry

High performance composite materials possess properties that make them great candidates for reducing the weight of cars. However, analysis of large structures or assemblies with complex geometries made from fibre reinforced composite materials is a difficult task. Modern state of the art set of failure initiation criteria are based on the full stress state while efficient standard shell models cannot provide this. This either requires high fidelity models or the risk that potentially critical failure modes may be neglected due to assumptions made in the numerical models.In this paper, a framework for computationally efficient durability analysis of composite structures in automotive industry is presented