VABS: Modeling Composite Beam-like Structures with 3D FEA Fidelity

Variational asymptotic beam section (VABS) is a unique technology continuously funded by the US Army since 1988 and it has become a tool of choice in the helicopter and wind turbine industries for modeling composite rotor blades. With analysis of a finite element meshed cross section, VABS can compute the best set of beam properties for 1D beam analysis and also accurately recover 3D stress/strain distribution over the cross section. VABS has been integrated with HyperWorks and OptiStruct for Altair users to take advantage of this powerful technology for better design and analysis of composite beam-like structures. 

The recording of the presentation by Dr. Wenbin Yu, CTO of AnalySwift, is almost 20 minutes long, and was originally presented at the 2020 ATCx Composites.