AnalySwift

May 17, 2022

Through the team competition engaging students to design, manufacture and test small-scale composite structural bridges, AnalySwift offers free access to VABS beam modeling software. Photo Credit: SAMPE On May 12  AnalySwift LLC  (West Lafayette, Ind., U.S.), a provider of efficient, high-fidelity modeling software for composites and other advanced materials, announced its sponsorship of the SAMPE 2022 Student Bridge Contest. Hosted by the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE, Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.), the Student Bridge Contest engages students through a team competition designing, manufacturing and testing small-scale structural bridges made from composite materials. Winners in the Bridge Contest receive notoriety, including cash and the SAMPE Student Bridge Champion trophy. “With participation worldwide, these contests are an excellent opportunity for students interested in pursuing a career in advanced composites,” Allan Wood, president and CEO of AnalySwift, says. “AnalySwift is pleased to offer student teams free access to the VABS composite simulation software. VABS helps accelerate students’ design and analysis with its rigorous modeling of slender composite structures, such as bridges, columns and other structures typically handled as beams. For instance, VABS quickly calculates accurate bending stiffness, neutral axis, extension stiffness, failure index and strength ratios. Students can use VABS on a typical laptop computer to calculate the ply-level details with the accuracy of 3D FEA in seconds.” This will be the 23rd year SAMPE has hosted the event, which will be held May 25, 2022, at the SAMPE conference and exhibition in Charlotte, N.C. According to SAMPE, 73 teams from 13 universities and colleges from five countries participated in the Bridge Contest in 2019. For more information on the Bridge Contest, including how student teams can access VABS, please visit the  SAMPE Student Bridge Contest webpage . “VABS is capable of rigorously reducing an original 3D slender solid with complex cross-sections into a simple engineering beam model,” according to Dr. Wenbin Yu, CTO of AnalySwift. “With continuous development funded by the U.S. Army and other agencies spanning over 30 years for performance and robustness, VABS’ accuracy has been extensively verified.” VABS is a general-purpose cross-sectional analysis tool for computing beam properties and recovering 3D stresses/strains of slender composite structures. It is a tool for modeling composite helicopter, air mobility and wind turbine rotor blades, as well as other slender composite structures, such as bridges, landing gear, propellers, high-aspect ratio wings, golf club shafts, fishing rods, columns, poles, shafts and rods. ×