AnalySwift, Purdue conduct research on design tool for tailorable composites use in space

Achieving affordable space exploration will require lightweight composite structures for vehicles, solar arrays and antennas. Lightweight materials will also be used for components of structures like pressurized habitats, cryogenic tanks, landing gear and truss cages. AnalySwift LLC (West Lafayette, Ind., U.S.) a Purdue University-affiliated commercial software provider, and Wenbin Yu, a professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, are conducting research to create a design tool to help fully exploit tailorable composite materials’ full potential for these kinds of applications. Yu is the principal investigator. Liang Zhang of AnalySwift and Xin Liu of the University of Texas (Arlington) are co-investigators.

Allan Wood, AnalySwift president and CEO, says that existing design tools were developed for traditional composites, which have straight fibers. If an open area is needed inside a traditional composite structure, this is often accomplished by creating a cut-out after it is manufactured, which can compromise the integrity of the structure.

“Tailorable composites, also known as tow-steered or variable thickness composites, however, can be highly customized thanks to improvements in manufacturing,” Wood notes. “New robotic techniques can weave fibers around areas intended for openings, expanding design options while improving the structures’ overall properties.”

AnalySwift has received a one-year, $125,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Washington, D.C., U.S.) for a project titled “An Efficient, High-Fidelity Design Tool for Advanced Tailorable Composites.” Yu says the project will benefit NASA and related agencies and industries by exploiting the potential of tailorable composites for designing better lightweight structures.

“The resulting efficient, high-fidelity design tool developed in this project will shorten the design and analysis period of structures made of tailorable composites,” Yu claims.

Wood says the design tool will have applications on Earth as well as in space, including aerospace, energy and wind, automotive, marine and other industries. “The tool could also lead to improve designs for high-performance, tailorable structures like prosthetics, electronics and sporting goods with reduced design cost and time,” he concludes.