Presentation made by P. Giddings at the NAFEMS UK Seminar "Practicalities of Analysing Composites" that was held in Coventry on the 28th of Septemberr 2016.

Composites are playing an increasingly important role in all areas of engineering. Light, strong, corrosion-free, composites are ideal candidates for producing novel, light-weight structures.

With this important role there are now a growing number of sophisticated numerical tools to predict the stiffness and strength, to analyse the manufacturing process, and tools that can help produce optimal designs for composite components and composite assemblies.

This seminar was for analysts who need to evolve their analysis methods to the design of composite components. Strategies and techniques being used by leading practitioners were presented.