SECTION 2

Solid Composites

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Shell vs. Solid Composite Elements

Traditionally laminated composites are modeled as shell elements in Nastran When a laminate is thick or when the load path and state of stress in the structure is three dimensional, solid elements are more appropriate

s33 interlaminar normal stress (peel stress) and s31 , s32

interlaminar shear stresses are important in the study of delamination
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SOL 400 Solid Composites

Solid Composite Elements
Available in SOL 400 Composite layup definition directly assigned to solid elements Stress recovery for ply stresses and interlaminar stresses Supports progressive ply failure analysis

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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A few solid composites examples

Scarf Repair

Stringer/Skin delamination

Tension and Compression test coupons

Bolted Joint

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Create the 3D Orthotropic Material

1. Create the 3D orthotropic material

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Create the 3D Orthotropic Material

Anisotropic material relationships (from Nastran 2011 Linear Static Analysis Users Guide):

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Create the 3D Orthotropic Material

Orthotropic material relationships (from Nastran 2011 Linear Static Analysis Users Guide):

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Create the 3D Orthotropic Material

A tape material is defined in the coordinate system shown:

Typically n13 is provided in data Nastran wants you to enter n31

Recall that

sheets. For example n13 = 0.33

n31 = n13 x (E3/E1) = 0.018

A common mistake is to enter the n13 value into this form

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-8

Defining the Composite Layup

2. The next step is to define the laminate layup. This process is very similar to the shell element laminate setup.
In Patran, click on the composite laminate icon to bring up the form. Enter the thickness and orientation of each ply The ply thickness can be entered either as the actual thickness, or as a percentage of the total laminate thickness.

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining the Composite Layup

Two ways to specify ply thickness
1) 2) Enter as a percentage of total laminate thickness Enter actual ply thickness (1)
% of laminate thickness

(2)
Actual ply thickness

or

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining the Composite Layup

Tips on entering ply thickness
1) Enter as a percentage of total laminate thickness
All percentages must add up to 100 Nastran run will fail if the percentages do not add up to 100

2) Enter actual ply thickness

Make sure the ply thicknesses you enter sum to a total laminate thickness which equals to the element thickness. Nastran will not check this for you. Behind the scene, Nastran divides the ply thicknesses by the total laminate thickness to compute fractions and use them to fit the plies inside the element in parametric space.

Thickness Direction
Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

CHEXA Element

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Defining the solid laminate property

3. The last step is to create a solid laminate property and assign it to solid elements.
In Patran, click on the Solid property icon. Set the option to Laminate.

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining the solid laminate property

3. Create a solid laminate property (cont.)
Specify the material orientation coordinate system It is used to define the X, Y, Z directions for the orthotropic material property defined earlier. The default is the basic coordinate system.

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining the solid laminate property

Specify the material orientation coordinate system
This coordinate system directly defines the local material coordinate system. No projection is used. Positive q direction is defined using the right hand rule about the local zaxis
zc yc xc
Coord 10001

zm ym xm
3 2 1

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining the solid laminate property

The element coordinate system option (CORDM = -1) is useful here if the element coordinate systems are aligned appropriately as shown below:
Set to -1

Element coordinate systems plotted

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-15

Defining the solid laminate property

3. Create a solid laminate property (cont.)
Define the thickness direction This tells Nastran how you intend to orient the plies inside the solid elements

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

Ply 1 Ply 2 Ply 3

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Defining the solid laminate property

Define the thickness direction
Also known as layer direction

Z
Y X
Element coordinate system

ply ply ply ply ply

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

ply

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ply ply ply

Defining the solid laminate property

Tip: Use the element coordinate system plot to help you select the thickness direction

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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SOL 400 Solid Composites

Nastran entries generated by Patran

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Solid Composite Results

SOL 400 solid composites results are available in the MASTER/DBALL, not in the XDB.
Specify MASTER/DBALL in Patran before the run After the run, attach Master to access the results

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Review the .f06 file

SOL 400 Solid Layered Composites results
Stress and strain results for each ply are provided at 4 integration points at mid-ply position

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Plotting Stresses in Patran

Patran stress fringe plot
1) Select Result quantity 2) Select which layer 3) Select stress component

Ply stress fringe plot fills the entire element

Averaged Averaged (1) (2) (3)

Un-averaged
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Solid Shell Composites

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Solid Layered Composites vs. Solid Shell Composites

Solid elements tend to be overly stiff in bending.

Several layers of solid elements through the thickness are typically required to correctly simulate a structural member in bending. Solid composite elements have this same limitation. Solid composite elements with this default formulation are called Solid Layered Composite (or Regular Solid Composite) elements.

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Solid Layered Composites vs. Solid Shell Composites (Cont.)

In cases where bending is dominant, and the model does not have several layers of solid elements through the thickness, consider using the solid shell formulation. In this formulation, assumed strain functions are added to the elements to make them behave more like shell elements when loaded in bending. Solid composite elements with this formulation are called Solid Shell Composite elements.
Tip: Solid shell composite elements are also known as continuum shell composite elements
Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-25

Solid Composites Types

Solid Layered Composites Each layer has 4 integration points Maximum of 510 layers per element Defined by PCOMPLS INT8=L or INT20=Q Solid Shell Composites Each layer has 1 integration point Maximum of 2040 layers per element Defined by PCOMPLS
INTi = ASTN The thickness direction must be in the element Z direction
One integration point per layer

3 2 2 1 3

2
1

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining Solid Shell Composites

To specify the solid shell composite element, the user needs to turn on the assumed strain formulation. This is done by setting the integration scheme to Assume Strain on the input properties form.

The thickness direction must be set to Element Z Direction

Must be set to Element Z

Solid Shell Composite

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining Solid Shell Composites

Define the material orientation coordinate system
The x-axis of the specified coordinate system projects onto the element face to create the local material x-axis
Face normal to the element Z direction

The local z-axis is in the thickness direction The local y-axis is obtained by the cross product ( local-z local-x ) Positive q direction is defined using the right hand rule about the local z-axis Thickness direction must be set to Element Z direction This is very similar to the way MCID is defined for the CQUAD4 z
c

yc xc zm ym xm
3 2 1

Coord 10001

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Defining Solid Shell Composites

Nastran entries produced by Patran

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Review the .f06

SOL 400 Solid Shell Composites results
Stress and strain results for each ply are provided at one integration point at mid-ply position

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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Plotting Stresses in Patran

Patran stress fringe plot
1) Select Result quantity 2) Select which layer 3) Select stress component

Ply stress fringe plot fills the entire element

Averaged (1) (2) (3)

Un-averaged
Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-31

Tips Enhanced Transverse Shear

Enhanced transverse shear distribution
When modeling shell-like structures with a single layer of solid elements, the TSHEAR (transverse shear) parameter can be turned on to obtain a parabolic shear distribution through the thickness of the shell

t
Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-32

Tips Generating Solid composite elements

Methods for generating solid composite elements
1. If the geometry is hex-meshable, directly mesh the solids 2. If the geometry is not hex-meshable, mesh the solid face with quads and sweep them into solid elements 3. Laminate Modeler can extrude solid composite elements from a shell mesh (see next slide)

Sweeping

Meshing Solids
Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation S2-33

Tips Generating Solid composite elements

Laminate Modeler
Extrudes shell mesh into solid composite elements Automatically creates PCOMPLS Can split laminate into multiple layers of solids

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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End of Section 2

Composites Technology Day, February 2012 Copyright 2012 MSC.Software Corporation

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