CMSC

Banner image: Thermwood LSAM 105 in Residence at CMSC.

Founded in 2015, the Composites Manufacturing Simulation Center (CMSC) of Purdue University has served as the Design Modeling and Simulation Technology Area of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, one of the national manufacturing institutes sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Since its inception, the CMSC has received more than $52 million from four primary sponsors: the Department of Energy; the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Indiana Economic Development Corporation; and industry (including Dassault Systèmes, a Fortune 50 software company that develops software for 3D product design, simulation, manufacturing and performance).

The CMSC’s notable accomplishments to date include 15 PhD degrees earned by graduate researchers in three College of Engineering schools; 15 industrial internships in sponsor companies; and development of the Composites Virtual Factory HUB, a cloud-based manufacturing simulation HUB.

In addition, the CMSC has created the following manufacturing workflows appropriate to model-based systems engineering and the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform:

• ADDITIVE3D — Extrusion Deposition Composites Additive Manufacturing
• PPM3D — Prepreg Platelet Molding and Performance
• INFUSION3D — Resin Transfer Molding
• HYBRID3D — Hybrid Over-molding
• VIRTUAL3D — Digital Twins for ASTM Test Standards

The CMSC has attained several recent achievements. Highlights include:

Designation as the 3DEXPERIENCE EDU Center of Excellence of Dassault Systèmes in 2020 — an advance celebrated virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic and in person Oct. 28, 2021 at the Indiana Manufacturing Institute (IMI) in the Purdue Research Park.

The Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE EDU Center of Excellence in Advanced Composites, founded on an eight-year partnership between Purdue and Dassault Systèmes (2013-2021), is expected to bring significant digital-age benefits to the partners and the global society. The partners are advancing the digital enterprise by developing the human talent essential to this new paradigm, as well as by using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to exercise digital twins of complex composites manufacturing and performance to demonstrate the power to predict phenomena understood today only by empirical experiences.

The CMSC and Dassault Systèmes are collaborating to introduce these concepts to a range of advanced composites industries, from original equipment manufacturers to supply chain industries. The philosophy of the 3DEXPERIENCE Education Center of Excellence is to create a learning environment at multiple levels — from advanced research in manufacturing and performance of advanced composites to student engagement at all levels needed to build the workforce for Industry 4.0. Also, Dassault Systèmes’ relocation of its West Lafayette offices to the IMI, adjacent to the CMSC, in 2020 is providing mutual advantages to Dassault Systèmes employees, Purdue faculty and students, and their stakeholders.

Establishment of the Thermwood Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory in 2021. Dale, Indiana-based Thermwood Corporation develops composites additive manufacturing systems with the scale needed to make products like the Al Davis Memorial Torch in the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which is the world’s tallest 3D-printed structure, at more than 90 feet. It is composed of 3D-printed segments made of carbon fiber and reinforced polycarbonate composite, and printed on the Thermwood LSAM. The Thermwood Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory houses a Thermwood LSAM 105 with print capacity of volume up to 250 ft³ and printing rates of 100 pounds/hour. It also houses the Composites Additive Manufacturing Instrument (CAMRI), which the CMSC team developed to validate virtual twin simulations/additive manufacturing.

Formation of the Composites Additive Manufacturing Industrial Consortium in 2021, with the goal of serving the end user, material supplier and additive manufacturing equipment manufacturing industries in developing this emerging industry. At the foundation of the consortium is the digital twin of the manufacturing process, ADDITIVE3D, which provides the engineering community with simulations of composites additive manufacturing that can guide successful printing of these large and complex structures and predict performance.

Attraction of an outstanding young faculty member to the CMSC and the Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Professor Dianyun Zhang, who holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, joined Purdue after her initial faculty appointment at the University of Connecticut Department of Mechanical Engineering. She received an NSF CAREER award in 2018 and has authored several seminal, archival publications on composites manufacturing science and engineering.

A growing relationship among The Boeing Company, Dassault Systèmes and the CMSC in developing high-rate manufacturing of thermoplastic composites with application in current and future aircraft. The model-based engineering and virtual twin technologies of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform serve as the foundation for future innovations in aircraft design and manufacturing. The power of the computer software to connect all the stakeholders to execute design, manufacturing and product lifetime support will accelerate product innovation and reduce time to market.

Additionally, the CMSC and Purdue Department of Physics have been engaged in designing and developing composite structures essential to the next discovery in particle physics with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in NSF-supported work. ATLAS is one of the four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. A virtual twin of the LHC support structure is critical to successful consideration of the multi-physics phenomena governing support structure performance. Successful digital twins of multiple support structures have guided the design and validation of support systems for the LHC, ATLAS, and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS).