Patent Document ID: 20120053907
Application ID: 12868660
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for obtaining numerically simulated structural behaviors of layered composite materials within a structure in a time-marching simulation using finite element analysis (FEA), said method comprising: receiving, in a computer system, a FEA model of a structure containing more than one types of layered composite materials represented by a plurality of shell finite elements that are identified with a single identifier defined by user; sorted the shell finite element elements by types into a plurality of internal groups in the computer system such that those shell finite elements in each group are resided in contiguous memory locations of the computer system's main memory when a time-marching simulation of the structure is conducted using computer performance enhancement techniques specifically applying to said those shell finite elements; and obtaining a time-history of structural responses including behaviors of the layered composite materials from the time-marching simulation.