Aside from the knowledge of the group concerning manufacturing and testing, the Group of Aeronautical Structures has also a great expertise regarding computational methods. Two groups of computational proceedings are frequently used by the group. The first one concerns numerical simulations via finite element analyses and the second one concerns post processing of experimental data via Digital Image Correlation and data processing.
The group is equiped with a high-performance Dell® workstation used for numerical simulations. The computer has two Intel® Xeon® processors of 2.40GHz, with a total core processing of 32 (physical and virtual) for parallel simulations, 128Gb of RAM and 4 dedicaded NVidea® GPUs of 4Gb each. Other three other dedicated computers are used to gather mechanical testing data from the universal testing machine, data from dynamic test and setting the control system of the killn.
The main computational tool used for the group is the finite element based software Abaqus®, which is widely used in both Academia and Industry. A wide range of applications are employed, such as Modal Analyses, Impact simulations, Homogenization procedures, Cohesive Models, Contact, Piezoelectric phenomena, High Order Plate theories, etc. The group has also an expertise on developing subroutines linked to the Abaqus solver, such as UMAT, VUMAT, UEL and VUEL. These subroutines are written in FORTRAN® language and extend the application of the software to the group needs. By using the subroutines, the group is able to develop its own material models, its own finite elements and overcome many of the limitations that Abaqus® alone has.
Another feature widely used by the group, linked to Abaqus®, is Python scripting. This allows all the analysis procedure to be automated, rendering very easy to vary any feature of the analysis, which is crucial in a sensitivity analysis. Also, the scripting allows an easy access to external mathematical libraries and to another softwares, such as Matlab®.
Besides the use of Abaqus®, the members of the group are also encouraged to develop in-house softwares in any programming language.
