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

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 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

Matrix- A homogeneous base
reinforcing fibers that are
material that forms the bulk of a
usually responsible for the
composite material layer.
anisotropy of the composite.
T

L
Lamina- A composite material in sheet form
usually referred to as a layer or ply. The
Laminate- A stack of lamina joined
material properties of a layer is usually
together in arbitrary directions,
determined through an equivalent
referred to as a composite lay-up.
homogenization (smearing) process.

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 Basics

laminating
lamina • wet-in-wet
- hand-lay-up
- sprayed-lay-up
• filament winding
• pultrusion
• resin transfer
layer 4 molding
o
4 = 0
laminate
layer 3
3 = - 

layer 2
2 = + 
[90o / + / -  / 0o] laminate
layer 1 angle-ply laminate ±
stacking sequence
o
1 = 90 cross-ply laminate  = 0o / 90o

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 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:
Add thickness, pricing
Engineering data and material limits 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 0°direction
• 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 pre-
defined 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 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 state-
of-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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