JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015 - 40

platform

OEMs and suppliers to collect additional
performance parameters. Independent
companies also analyze material properties and then publish data on them for a
fee. Although this sounds ideal, it may not
be since there are no uniform criteria for
gathering the data. To compensate, OEMs
must purchase multiple material databases.
In many cases, this approach is still insufficient. Using cdmHUB as a tool to standardize criteria required for manufacturers
will help decrease the part lifecycle while
bringing additional fidelity to the part.
Fig. 1: Software tools such as CATIA Composites on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform provide many of the virtual
tools required for the design, simulation and manufacturing of wind energy systems.

those that meet best practices? Accessing
a platform like the Composites Design
and Manufacturing Hub (cdmhub.org)
can help to accelerate the process. The
cdmHUB's objective is to accelerate the
development of, and knowledge about,
a comprehensive toolset for composites
design and manufacturing that is available
to the entire composites community.

The cdmHUB utilizes the proven
HUBZero architecture. The National
Science Foundation (NSF) provided
more than US$30 million in funding to
develop the original nanoHUB technology and the HUBZero platform at Purdue
University. Today, there are more than 30
HUB organizations at Purdue using the
same platform and Rappture software (a
toolkit that supports rapid application
infrastructure, see https://nanohub.org/
infrastructure/rappture/). Supported
by NSF, nanoHUB.org is the largest and
most successful HUB. To date, it boasts
10,000 users worldwide. It has more than
350,000 simulations with more than 210
simulation tools to model important
nano-phenomena for nanoelectronics,
materials science, thermal science, physics
and chemistry. More than 2,500 content
items, such as tutorials, seminars and full
classes, are available to the community.
The user community consists of students
at all levels, research professionals, faculty
and industrial users. Tools range from
molecular modelling and simulation to
photonics.

Internet platform
Using the Internet to harvest data for both
physical and virtual testing is ideal because
all manner of composite data can be easily accessible. Whether data is collected
through public sources or is purchased for
a fee, it can be much more economical than
physical testing. Today, this approach is
not very practical because the information
available from each source is different and
without doing the tests over again, there
is no way to know what data is correct and
what data is not. Hence, the composites
profession needs a platform where data
can be evaluated and given some level of
certification.
The cdmHUB is designed to be a platform
for the birth, development, maturation,
integration and commercialization of
the simulation tools necessary to bring
composites certification and manufacturing simulation to a level consistent with
the profession's need for high-performance
composite simulation tools for geometric
and structural modelling. These tools
include software such as BIOVIA, CATIA,
DELMIA and SIMULIA from Dassault
Systèmes, Digimat from e-Xstream, and
Compro from Convergent Technologies.

Standardized criteria
Additionally, material suppliers publish
properties with the basic information
required for virtual simulations of manufacturing and performance. But this information is typically insufficient, requiring

40 jec composites magazine / No99 September 2015

Addressing challenges across all industries
Today, the energy, process and utility
(EPU) industry is forced to combine data
from multiple sources, a time-consuming
and error-prone process. Although the
industry has a long way to go to bring the
composite software toolset to maturity
and remove the uncertainties associated
with composites manufacturing, there
are things that can be done to narrow the
gap. In theory, wind turbine blades made
from composites materials should run with
minimal maintenance for 25 years. This
assumes the right design and manufacturing software tools and processes along with
best practices are used.
The cdmHUB fosters composite simulation software of all maturity levels that will
help boost productivity for wind turbine
blades. However, there is no need to stop
with the EPU industry. The cdmHUB
platform is designed to address challenges
for advanced materials across all industries
including aerospace, automotive, marine
and consumer goods. n
More information:
www.3ds.com/composites and
www.cdmHUB.org
References
1. http://energy.gov/eere/wind/historywind-energy
2. http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/
c08/e3-11-42.pdf
3. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/oct/17/wind-power-renewableenergy
4. http://www.design4manufacturability.
com/DFM_article.htm

http://www.cdmhub.org https://www.nanohub.org/ http://www.nanoHUB.org http://www.3ds.com/composites http://www.cdmHUB.org http://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/history http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c08/e3-11-42.pdf http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/oct/17/wind-power-renewable-energy http://www.design4manufacturability.com/DFM_article.htm

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015