Robust Design

The complexity of composites can result in geometric and material property variation, affecting the overall behaviour of the finished structure. This uncertainty is not new; materials are not homogenous, geometries are never perfect, loads fluctuate and boundary conditions are never ideal. The use of single, deterministic values in design may lead to situations where engineers are unable to predict potential flaws during design with serious safety consequences.

ACS Australia’s personnel have developed Robust Design techniques to ensure that composite structures will be tolerant to unknown variations and imperfections. Algorithms were developed to quantify changes to the output responses due to variation in the input variables. Robust Design aims to capture the possible responses that can potentially be encountered and reduce these responses so that unexpected failure can be mitigated.

The concepts were successfully demonstrated in the CRC-ACS contribution to the European Commission 6th Framework Project COCOMAT (www.cocomat.de). Robust Design can be applied to all aspect of composite design. Future research will allow improved predictions of impact damage tolerance, material degradation and load paths in multi-component structures.