The New Item menu provides options for creating new fiber, matrix and core materials as well as new lamina materials, new laminates or new thickness/angle templates.

Also included is the former Micromechancis module, which allows the user to select from a library of 3D fiber and matrix properties or input your own. Once the fiber and matrix properties are selected, lamina mechanical properties, physical properties and strengths can be calculated on a “by-volume” or “by-weight” basis.

Each of these new materials can be saved to the Material Date File Tree for future use.

The Laminate module provides nine different laminate analysis features to easily determine the properties and performance of a laminate. A library of lamina properties can be used or you may input your own to create a layup of any combination.

Global laminate material properties are easily calculated and plotted. Both 2D and 3D properties are generated. The laminate can then be loaded with in-plane strains, stresses, resultants, moment resultants and temperature or moisture loads. Stresses and strains on the individual laminae, due to the applied loads, can be displayed and plotted.

You may also select from 7 laminate failure theories (max strain, max stress, Tsai-Wu, Tsai-Hill, Hashin, Christensen and Puck) to predict laminate strengths using the “First Ply” Failure, First Ply Failure Survey and Progressive Failure options.

Once you have defined the plate length and width, three different options are available. Plate bending allows calculation of moments and deflections for simply supported uniform or concentrated loaded plates. The stability option calculates the minimum loads which will make a uniaxial or biaxial loaded plate buckle. Finally, the natural vibration frequency for a variety of boundary conditions can be determined. Based upon the popular text by James Whittney, Structural Analysis of Laminated Anisotropic Plates.

In this module, you may define a laminate and then select core materials from a library or input your own. The length, width and core thickness for the sandwich panel are then defined.

There are three sandwich panel analysis features available in this module. Beam Bending determines the maximum transverse deflection due to a wide variety of transverse load types and boundary conditions. Panel Bending determines the transverse deflection of a simply supported sandwich plate to a uniformly distributed load. Stability lets you compute the critical buckling load of a plate subjected to uniaxial in-plane compression for a variety of boundary conditions.

In this module, users can test the behavior of composite tube or beam structures. Cross sections include solid plate, elliptical, circular, rectangular, I, C, U and T sections.

Once the tube or beam is defined, there are five different analysis options: Bending deflection, moments, stresses, etc. are calculated for point, uniform distributed and triangular loadings using combinations of fixed, free and simple supports. Torsional stresses and deflections can be determined. Fundamental vibration frequencies of bending and twisting are determined for a variety of end conditions and end masses. Cylindrical stability for external pressure, bending, torsion and axial compression is available as well as column stability calculations.

Calculations are based upon beam theory (Roarks Formulas for Stress and Strain) and NASA SP-8007 cylindrical stability

Several handy features are included in this module.

• Volume Fraction Converter calculates lamina fiber/matrix weight % from fiber/matrix volume or vice versa.

• Filament Winding Calculator calculates the ply thickness for a filament wound lay-up.

• Fabric Thickness determines the thickness of a single ply based on fiber volume fraction / areal weight and void volume.

• Roving Converter calculates cross-sectional areas, the yield, denier, lineal density, Tex and deciTex for a roving process.

• Radius of Curvature computes the bending radius for un-symmetric laminates.

• Laminate Survey calculates the elastic properties and strengths of laminates that are composed of various percentages of 0° plies, 90° plies and +/-45° plies of a specified lamina material.