Application of Numerical Methods in the Improvement of Safety of Aeronautical Structures

The application of numerical methods in the improvement of safety of aeronautical structures has been demonstrated in this work through examples in which advanced numerical methods have been used in the structural analyses. The work presents the various research areas and engineering applications which have been performed at the Project Laboratory for Numerical Modelling of Damage in Aeronautical Structures at the University of Zagreb. The numerical methodology is based on the Abaqus/Explicit software where the ability to implement additional damage and failure models through user subroutines is used to extend the capabilities of the numerical framework. The results presented in this work illustrate the robustness of the methodology and the ability to accurately model the structural response of aeronautical structures in highly nonlinear loading conditions.