Automated Construction of Layer-by-Layer Finite Element Sub-Models of Damaged Composites Based on NDE Data

Composite laminate structures are usually modeled as a shell in finite element analysis tools for strength and stiffness determination. However, modeling for fatigue or degradation analysis often needs to be performed with layer-by-layer solid models, but building these models for nontrivial geometries can be extremely difficult, especially when trying to represent realistic defects. This paper discusses how the process of generating...