Laminate Tools Integration for Drape Simulation

Overview

This new interface provides HyperMesh users with a number of Laminate Tools functions from
inside of the HyperMesh environment, including draping simulation, accurate property tables, easy
export to Laminate Tools of the finalized ply configuration for later post processing, and easy export
of manufacturing data.

Laminate Tools is a stand-alone Windows application that addresses the entire Design-Analy-
sis-Check-Manufacture group process of structural design, especially composite material features.
The product provides six modules: View, Geometry, Design, Analysis, Check, and Manufacture.
The View module provides read-only viewing for easy, in-depth examination and understanding of
the composite design. The other five modules, Geometry, Design, Analysis, Check, and Manufac-
turing extend the product’s outstanding functionality by importing surface geometry, creating Ply
and Layup material information, providing FE laminate properties, checking FEA stress results,
generating failure indices, exporting ply patterns and enabling information flow between third-party
applications. Laminate Tools has native interfaces and can communicate with most CAD and FEA
applications via industry standard file formats.

Learn more at www.anaglyph.co.uk/laminate_tools.htm

Purpose

Laminate Tools is widely used to simulate composite draping effects for highly curved surfaces, and
can be used to find the flattened shape of plies for manufacturing simulation. The product can be
purchased separately from Anaglyph Ltd., UK and is not available via the Altair Partner Alliance.

• When laying a flat composite sheet over a highly curved surface, the sheet can incur shearing.
This creates change in the fiber angle with respect to the material system. It is no longer the
nominal ply angle (0,45, -45, 90). If the change in angle or thickness is significant, it will lead to
a change in the stiffness direction.

• Using Laminate Tools from HM, users can simulate draping and find:

A) Change in fiber angle with respect to an element material system and create distribution
of drape angle changes

B) Changes in thickness of each ply

C) Flattened shape of a ply needed to be fabricated before laying on the mold

• Only OptiStruct, RADIOSS, Abaqus, and LS-DYNA are supported in the HyperMesh interface in
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Usage

• Create a ply shape (elements) using the ply realization method in HyperMesh. Each ply needs
to have elements associated with them. If the ply is draped, delete the table associated with that
ply.

• In the browser, select the ply/plies to be draped, right-click and select Drape>Laminate Tools.

• Set up draping parameters.

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• In the Drape Calculation tab, define draping simulation settings.

A. Using the Application Point selector, select a node to indicate where the ply is first
placed on the surface.

B. Using the Reference Direction selector, select two nodes to indicate where the reference
direction (zero degree ply direction).

C. Using the Application Direction selector, select a vector to indicate how a ply is placed.
If this direction (vector) is not selected, the element normal will be used as the application
direction.

D. In the Implicit Step field, enter a draping step length. The default value of 1 may be
decreased or increased to obtain more or less detail in the draped pattern.

E. In the Max Strain field, enter a value to color the drape lines. If the % shear is above this
value, yellow and red contours will start appearing on the drape line, which indicates you
may need to cut the fiber in order to relieve strain/wrinkling. Click Apply

• After the draping simulation runs, HyperMesh reads in the results, which you can review from
the table in the property area on the lower end of the model browser:

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From the table, you can select data and view the individual values calculated by the Laminate
Tools:

Currently supported interfaces include OptiStruct, RADIOSS, Abaqus, and LS-DYNA.

In the OptiStruct interface, the draping results (angle and thickness variation) are directly written
into a DRAPE card. No further action is required. For Abaqus, you need to realize the laminate
entity. Afterwards, a *DISTRIBUTION card is assigned to each property of the laminate, and the
information for thickness and angle variation is written out on the card.

When working in the LS-DYNA interface, you have the option to write draping information on the
properties (*PART_COMPOSITE) or elements (*ELEM_COMPOSITE) during the laminate realiza-
tion process. For RADIOSS, the information is also written to the property card.

In the Laminate Realize dialog, you can define orientation and thickness tolerances. The number of
properties generated by the algorithm depends on these tolerances and can be high for big differ-
ences between elements:

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HyperMesh supports the following graphical review modes:

1. Drape Lines: Initially a unidirectional ply starts with a 90 degree angle between weft and
wrap lines. As the ply is draped over a curved surface, this angle changes. If the shear is
more than the max strain, the color changes from blue to yellow and then red.

2. Flatten Ply: Review the flat ply shape needed to cover the surface.

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3. Drape Thickness: Contour the distribution of thickness changes.

4. Drape Orientation (shear): Contour the shear (angle changes from 90 deg.)

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5. Exporting the Flattened Ply Shape as Geometry (STEP format): Export the flat ply
shape (one ply at a time) as STEP geometry.

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