SIMULATION DRIVEN

DEVELOPMENT OF
COMPOSITE STRUCTURES
Mikael Lauth
Senior Engineering Analyst, FEM
EDR & Medeso AB
2012-06-07

ANSYS Composite Prepost

Efficient pre- and postprocessor for analysis of structures

made of composite materials

2012-06-07

Summary

Dedicated to allow for easy and efficient definition and modification of

layered-composite structures as well as their specific post-processing
Dedicated to provide leading-edge technology in pre- and post
processing of layered composite structures
Integrates with Mechanical Simulation as well as with Mechanical APDL
Provides failure assessment as well as manufacturing information such
as draping and plybooks.

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Composites

Composite materials are made of at least two distinct materials with

different material parameters for each phase
Fiber reinforced composites (FRC) are composites where one material
component (fiber) is used as a reinforcing material for
the matrix
Composites have a
wide range of usage:
sports, civil engineering,
automotive & aerospace
industry, shipbuilding,
cables, consumer goods

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Basics

Fibers- Bonded or embedded

reinforcing fibers that are
usually responsible for the
anisotropy of the composite.

Matrix- A homogeneous base

material that forms the bulk of a
composite material layer.

L
Lamina- A composite material in sheet form
usually referred to as a layer or ply. The
material properties of a layer is usually
determined through an equivalent
homogenization (smearing) process.

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Laminate- A stack of lamina joined

together in arbitrary directions,
referred to as a composite lay-up.

Basics
laminating

wet-in-wet
- hand-lay-up
- sprayed-lay-up
filament winding
pultrusion
resin transfer
molding

lamina

layer 4
o
4 = 0

laminate

layer 3
3 = -
layer 2
2 = +
layer 1
o
1 = 90

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[90o / + / - / 0o] laminate

angle-ply laminate
stacking sequence

cross-ply laminate = 0o / 90o

Tools neded for analysis

An accurate representation of the structure in its environment:

geometry, mesh, loads & boundary conditions
An accurate representation of the composites : material behavior, ply
definitions, orientations of the fibers
A numerically accurate solver
A wide array of tools to investigate and understand the results and
estimate the risks of failure
Links to the manufacturing process (draping, plybooks)
All of this in a user-friendly environment!

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ANSYS ACP

The ANSYS Composite

Prep/Post Advantage

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Model representation

User of the ANSYS Composite Prep/ Post benefit from all the
advantages of the ANSYS solutions:
Direct CAD imports from all major CAD products
Import of standard geometry formats (STEP, Parasolid)
Geometry cleaning
Best-in class meshing capabilities for surface and
solid models with linear or quadratic elements

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Model representation

Meshing information as well as loads and boundary conditions are

transferred to ANSYS Composite PrepPost

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Laminate modelling

A hierarchical data description of materials, stackups and laminates

Base information:
Engineering data and material limits

Add thickness, pricing

and draping
information

Fabrics
Stack fabrics, add
pricing and draping
information

Stackups
Define final
laminate
product

Laminates

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Definition of fiber direction

A key element of the definition of composite materials is the proper

orientation of the fibers
ANSYS Composite PrepPost uses a concept of oriented element-sets:
user can define material application
direction and material 0direction
One or several coordinate systems
assigned to an oriented element-set
no need for ply-subdivision
Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical
systems are supported

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Definition of fiber direction

ANSYS Composite PrepPost uses a concept of oriented element-sets:

user can use lines or edged of the
geometry to specify fiber direction
no need for ply-subdivision
Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical
systems are supported

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Defining laminate areas

Laminates and associated

orientations are defined on
zones (element groups)
Zones can be applied a predefined laminate
Additional Laminates can be
constructed by progressive
stacking on zones
Support for layer drop-off

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Visualization of stacking

Stacking sequences and

composite thicknesses
can be displayed on
arbitrary sections or
on the entire model

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Creating solid model based on shell model

Easy generation of solid model based on shell model

(suitable for thick laminate analysis)

Shell model

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Extruded solid

Snap to geometry

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Computing the solution

The ANSYS Composite Prep/Post uses the ANSYS Mechanical solutions to

compute the base solution of the model.
All advantages of our core solutions are therefore available:
Support of the latest element generation: linear and quadratic
shells, linear and quadratic solids
Layered element formulation
Isotropic, orthotropic and anisotropic material models
Fast and accurate solver
Multiple time steps support

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General postprocessing

Basic quantities like displacement, stress and strain.

Arbitrarily configurable envelope contour failure plot

Overlay Text-plots for easy identification of the relevant

failure-modes and critical layer
Sensor to calculate mass, area etc. for complete model
or selected areas or group of elements.
Generate superposition load cases based on initial load
cases

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Failure analysis

ANSYS Composite PrepPost

provides a unique set of failure
criteria to analyze the product:
From simple criteria (max stress) to stateof-the art analysis (Puck, Hashin, Cuntze)
Interlaminar shear, normal stresses for shells
Through thickness failure for shells
Combination of failure criteria provides
failure envelope
3D implementation of main criteria
(Tsai-Hill, Hashin, Puck etc.)
Ability to create user-defined criteria

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Failure analysis

Results can be displayed as:

Most critical failure criteria
Critical layer
Reserve, inversed reserve factors and
safety margin (based on stress limits)

Standard results (stresses.) per layer

Sampling elements

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Draping & flatwrap

Draping

ANSYS Composite PrepPost

provides draping functionality
to analyze for drapability as
well as for calculation of the
fiber-angle correction

Further ANSYS Composite

Flat-wrap

PrepPost can also provide

the flat-wrap of plies with
their distortion

Flatwrap boundaries export

to STEP or IGES format
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Plybook generation

A set of plies or all plies

are selected for ply-book
generation.

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Additional capabilities

Python scripting capabilities provide full automation for the setup of the
composite models as well as reusing data generated previously.

ANSYS Composite PrepPost can update the model definition upon design
changes without the need to redefine the entire model through a simple
update of the input mesh.

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Development process

ANSYS Composite Prepost is the high end tool in calculating composite

structures and is suited to study lay ups with hundreds of layers
Without engaging ANSYS Composite Prepost it is possible to set up
layered section in Workbench Simulation to perform concept studies to
find out:
Overall thickness
Major fiber orientation for individual layers
Material selection

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Development process

In the example shown of a flat plate, simply supported and subject to an

offset load at half length.
The lay up is a sandwich construction with a core and 8 layers of glass
fiber
The governing output is total deflection
How does the fiber angles closest to the core influence the deflection?

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Development process

ANSYS WorkBench Environment can with a few mouse clicks set up a

sensitivity study (what if study) to investigate the variation of the output
parameter due to a variation of an input parameter.

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Development process

Next step is to go further using DesignExplorer that is a tool for

performing:
Design of Experiments (DOE) studies on multiple input parameters

Goal Driven Optimization to find the best design proposal

Design for Six Sigma to account for scatter in input data and obtain a
probability of how well the result fulfills the design requirements

Get knowledge of how much each input parameter influence the

output parameter. Which parameters are important and which who
have less influence on the output parameters.

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ESAComp

FE-export/import

ESAComp analyses can be used with the design tools for the preliminary
design of laminated structures.
Laminate lay-ups and the related properties specified in ESAComp can
be exported into FE software using the FE export interface.
After FE analysis, designers can import results to ESAComp using the FE
import interface. This allows laminate level post processing and further
improvement of the structure.
Analysis Tools

Fiber/matrix micromechanics
Plies and laminates
Plates and stiffened panels
Beams and columns
Bonded joints and mechanical joints

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The End

END OF PRESENTATION
Thank you for listening

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