Abstract
The analysis of modern structures for aerospace, infrastructure, and automotive engineering applications necessitates the use of larger and larger computational models for accurate prediction of structural response. The ever-increasing size of computational structural mechanics simulations imposes a pressing need for commensurate increases in computational speed to keep costs and computation times in check. Innovative methods are needed to expedite the numerical analysis of complex structures while minimizing computational costs. The need for these methodologies is even more critical when performing durability and damage tolerance evaluation as the computation is repeated a number of times for various loading conditions. This paper describes a breakthrough for efficient and accurate predictive methodologies that are amenable to the analysis of progressive failure, reliability, and optimization of large-scale composite structures or structural components.