Unknown Qualities

This article reviews various tools that are evolving to help engineers work with complex composite materials. Specialized composite analysts are needed to help find the best material for a particular use and to determine if it can be manufactured with the chosen material and in a particular shape. The Falcon Heavy spaceflight system is planned to launch on a SpaceX-designed rocket engine. As composite materials are lighter than metal, SpaceX engineers realized that composites could improve the strength-to-weight ratio of its materials. In order to help engineers choose the best composite for the design, the software system contains a large library of material models that designers can use to explore a composite material and determine how it might behave under a variety of circumstances. Predicting how the cracks will affect the part long-term still cannot be done within software packages and must be prototyped.