Rolls-Royce progresses dynamic innovation in composites with CATIA and SIMULIA

The Rolls-Royce name has become synonymous with integrity, reliability and innovation across its four main business sectors - civil and defence aerospace, marine and energy. Today it is the world's second largest civil and defence aero engine company, a global leader in marine propulsion and a leading supplier of energy solutions. All of these businesses have a common bond: at their heart, they depend on gas turbine technology.

Advanced technology

Rolls-Royce uses many advanced software solutions to progress its work. Darren James, a composite design technologist based at the company's Derby location, England, spoke about the use of CATIA in several composites-related research and development projects. "We use CATIA as an enabler across various projects," he says. "Very often, we need to investigate the properties of new materials, new types of construction and new manufacturing processes in potential applications. This involves developing digital 3D software models of components and whole systems. 3D models are used for many purposes, including being meshed for Finite Element Analysis (FEA), engineering analysis and manufacturing optimisation. We assessed the software products on the market that could potentially manage all these tasks. Dassault Systèmes offers a suite of integrated product development solutions that allows us to streamline our processes and seamlessly move from design to analysis."

James explains that some of the software that they investigated restricted their work by imposing constrictions that limit creativity and imagination. "CATIA does not restrict our work and it's very easy to use. It's also flexible and very powerful. This makes it easy to create, analyse and modify designs in quick order. This is a boon to our design development productivity because it allows us to time-compress projects by significant percentages," he says. There are no limits on what the system allows and its export function is very useful for enabling other parts of the extended enterprise to receive data in formats that are best suited to their needs. This means that design, methods and analysis data are quickly available for others to utilise in their work. That speed allows concurrent engineering with all of its resultant advantages and benefits. James continues: "There are fewer holdups, work flows between departments much faster and with assured accuracy."

Exploiting knowledge

Ian Care, Rolls-Royce engineering specialist, comments: "CATIA Composites Design allows us to exploit our knowledge and experience of this material fully. This solution is also deployed on research and development projects with new and exotic materials, where it's valuable for its powerful and flexible ease of use."

"We define designs and develop methods using CATIA," James says. "The software makes some formerly complex jobs very simple through automation. This helps take days off our work." Designers are able to define shapes, orientation and laminate stacking sequences using MS Excel spreadsheets or the inbuilt 'Interactive Ply Table' function to drive CATIA.

Rolls-Royce has found many 'hidden' features within CATIA Composites Design. These 'discoveries' have helped them to look in great detail at non-isotropic organic matrix materials and much more. The company is pushing technology and has used Dassault Systèmes software to advance its explorations. Rolls-Royce has also deployed Abaqus FEA from SIMULIA, which, when used in conjunction with CATIA, provides a powerful and integrated environment for performing nonlinear structural analysis of composites. "We get great support from Dassault Systèmes, and they have helped us to solve problems and improve the software's functionality," James comments. "The benefits of using CATIA Composites Design and Abaqus FEA are the simplification of tasks and significant increase in work speed. Some jobs that used to take weeks to complete now take days."

Rolls-Royce uses CATIA's automated functions to maximum advantage to do more iterations and more digital testing in less time. They can now achieve things that were formerly impossible. CATIA allows engineers to optimise structural models for impact, weight, aerodynamics and manufacturability. "It is a fantastic learning tool that delivers real efficiencies," James says.

The complete composites solution from Dassault Systèmes, including CATIA Composites Design, advanced finite element meshing capabilities within CATIA, and the robust nonlinear Abaqus FEA solution, is an enabler of tasks that could not be achieved before. It allows Rolls-Royce to reduce fuel consumption, noise and emissions while improving time to market. "It puts no limits on our imagination across our business and helps us to make more rapid development advances," Care concludes.

“The benefits of using CATIA Composites Design and Abaqus FEA are the simplification of tasks and significant increase in work speed. Some jobs that used to take weeks to complete now take days.”

Darren James,
Composite Design Technologist Rolls-Royce

Photographs reproduced with the permission of Rolls-Royce plc, copyright ©Rolls-Royce plc 2010