Mech-UCO 120 WS-05 Laminate

Workshop 5
Defining Composite
Elements and Layers
with Commands Objects
ANSYS Mechanical Advanced

((Using
g Command Objects)
j )
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS5-1 Inventory #002669
Workshop 5
Introduction Training Manual
• A 3-layer cylindrical composite structure will be analyzed:

– The geometrically nonlinear analysis will consist of two steps:
• The first step involves a tensile membrane loading (Displacement)
• A pressure load is applied in the second step
– Failure criteria will be specified, and results examined

Workshop 5
Note About Composites Training Manual
• A composite or layered element consists of a single element with

multiple materials, as shown below (layered solid element shown):
• Mechanical APDL includes many types of composite elements:

– 3D B
Beams with
ith multi-material
lti t i l cross-sections
ti
• BEAM188, BEAM189, ELBOW290 elements
– 2D Layered Axisymmetric Shells
SHELL208 SHELL209 elements
• SHELL208,
– 3D Layered Shells
• SHELL181, SHELL281 elements (SHELL131 and SHELL132 are thermal shells)
– 3D Layered Solid elements
• SOLID185, SOLID186, SOLSH190 elements

Workshop 5
Note About Composites Training Manual
• Composite elements are efficient for layered or multi-material

structures since a single element is used through the thickness
– Each layer does not need to be meshed independently
• For design purposes, various failure criteria can be used to evaluate
the strength of the composite material:
– Maximum Strain Failure Criterion
– Maximum Stress Failure Criterion
– Tsai-Wu Failure Criterion
– User-Defined Failure Criterion using the userfc subroutine
• For more details on composite capabilities, see the Help sections:
– “Mechanical APDL (formerly ANSYS) > Structural Analysis Guide > Ch. 13
Composites”
Beam Analysis and Cross Sections”
Sh ll Analysis
Shell A l i andd Cross
C Sections”
S ti ”

Workshop 5
Workshop Objectives Training Manual
• In this workshop, the following will be covered:

– Setting up Layered Elements in Mechanical
– Use of “Commands” objects in Mechanical
– Use of Failure Criteria
– Postprocessing Layered Elements in Mechanical APDL
• Informative text in this workshop is preceded by bullet point whereas

steps
t tto perform
f are designated
d i t d with
ith numbers.
b
– This applies to top-level bullet/numbered items only
• APDL commands that can be typed in the Command Prompt are
shown
h with
ith Typewriter
it (C i ) font.
(Courier) f t

Workshop 5
… Review Model in Mechanical Training Manual
1. Launch ANSYS Workbench 12.0

• Windows Start menu > Programs > ANSYS 12.0 > Workbench
2. Restore archive “workshop
p 5a.zip”
p
• “File menu > Restore Archive…”
• Select “workshop 5a.zip” from the location specified by your instructor
• Save the “laminate” p
project
j to a directory
y specified
p by
y your
y instructor

Workshop 5
3. Double-click on the “Setup” cell (A5) to launch Mechanical

• Examine the “Analysis Settings” details, as well as the defined boundary
conditions (Loads and Supports)
• This analysis includes Large Deflection effects with 2 Steps
• The “Displacement 2” support applies a 0.001 inch displacement
• The “Pressure” load applies 50 psi loading in Step 2

Workshop 5
4. From the “Units” menu, change the unit system to “U.S. Customary
(in, lbm, lbf, °F, s, V, A)”
5. Select the “Analysis Settings” branch. In the Details view, under
“Analysis Data Management”, set “Solver Units: Manual” with
“Solver Unit System: Bin”

Workshop 5
• In this exercise, the composite thickness layer as well as failure

criteria will be input via APDL commands. Because these values
have units, the unit system must be set to “U.S. Customary (in, …)”
• If an analysis model containing “Commands” objects will be given to
another user, that user may have a different active unit system.
Solving “Commands” objects with unit-dependent information in the
wrong uniti system willill cause incorrect
i results!
l ! By
B changing
h i the
h
“Solver Units” in Step 5, the unit system can be specified for the
solver. In this case “Bin” is a shorthand notation for “British units,
INches” which is what will be assumed for this exercise.
INches”, exercise
• When using Commands objects with unit-dependent values, it is

strongly recommended to always set the “Solver Units” manually!

Workshop 5
6. Because postprocessing will be performed in Mechanical APDL, set

“Save ANSYS db: Yes” under the “Analysis Settings” branch
• It is strongly recommended to always save the Mechanical APDL
database file.db whenever “Commands” objects are used since one
may need to postprocess or review the model in Mechanical APDL

Workshop 5
… Specify Composite Properties Training Manual
7. Select the “Geometry > Surface Body” branch.

– Notice that the “Coordinate System” is defined, as shown below. The
local coordinate system x-axis will be mapped to the element, defining
th element’s
the l t’ x-axis
i orientation
i t ti

Workshop 5
8. Switch to the Workbench Project Schematic, and open

“Engineering Data” cell (A2)
• Review the material properties for “Graphite-Epoxy”, which is used for
the Surface Body. Note that an orthotropic material definition is
specified, with the x-direction being the fiber direction.
• Use “Return to Project” icon on toolbar to return to the Project
Schematic and go back to the Mechanical GUI
Schematic, GUI.

Workshop 5
9. In Mechanical, right-click on the “Surface Body” branch and “Insert

> Commands”
• Select the “Import…” icon on the Context Toolbar, and select the
workshop 5a-prep.txt file in the location specified by the instructor

Workshop 5
10. In the Details view of the “Commands (ANSYS)” object, enter

“0.005” for “ARG1”
• The “Input Arguments” ARG1-ARG9 allow users to share APDL
command objects with others; the recipient does not need to know the
APDL command syntax but only needs to know the input arguments

Workshop 5
• The first set of commands delete the current section ID (ID=MATID),

then define a new shell section with three layers.
– sdelete,MATID
• The three layers have 45/-45/45 orientation using the same material
(MATID) of “Graphite-Epoxy” reviewed earlier. The 45° orientation is
with respect to the element’s x-axis, as defined by the local
Coordinate System shown previously.
– sectype,MATID,shell
– secdata,ARG1,MATID,45,5
– secdata,ARG1,MATID,-45,5
– secdata,ARG1,MATID,45,5
• Notice that the first argument of the SECDATA command is the layer
thickness, and in this case, the ARG1 parameter will substitute the
user-entered ARG1 value, which is 0.005 (inches). Hence, each layer
has the same thickness of 0.005 inches.

Workshop 5
• The material parameters for failure criteria is specified in the next

section. Although temperature-dependent input is available, in this
case, only constant stress parameters are input. The tensile,
compressive, and shear limits for
f material x, y, and z directions are
entered.
– fc,MATID,s,xten,219.5e3
– fc,MATID,s,xcmp,-246e3
– fc,MATID,s,yten,6.35e3
– fc,MATID,s,ycmp,-6.35e3
– fc,MATID,s,zten,6.35e3
– fc,MATID,s,zcmp,-6.35e3
– fc,MATID,s,xy ,12.6e3
– fc,MATID,s,yz ,9.8e3
– fc,MATID,s,xz ,12.6e3

Workshop 5
• The maximum stress and Tsai-Wu failure criteria are discussed in

detail in Section 2.4.3 of the Theory Reference, but the relevant
equations are copied below:
– The maximum stress criterion (left) is a very simple model that reviews
the six directions independently
– The Tsai-Wu failure criterion (right) is a model that attempts to account
for differences in tension and compression and the influence of direction

Workshop 5
… Add Postprocessing Commands Training Manual
11. Right-click on “Solution (A6)” and “Insert > Commands”

12. Click on the “Import” icon in the Context Toolbar and add the file
workshop 5a-post.txt from the location noted by the instructor

Workshop 5
… Add Postprocessing Commands Training Manual
• The postprocessing APDL commands are a little more involved than

the previous “Commands” object for the composite shell definition.
However, the basic steps can be summarized as follows:
– Read in the last result set (end of Step 2)
– Select only the higher-order shell elements
– Set graphics display (e.g., black-on-white)
– Set the results plotting to be oriented with the layer (material) coordinate
system (i.e., “x” will refer to the material x-direction for that layer)
– Process the layer with the largest failure criterion
– Plot various results with appropriate titles

Workshop 5
… Solve the Model Training Manual
13. Solve the model

• The analysis may take a minute or two, depending on the hardware
• After the solution is complete, select the “Solution Information” branch,
and in the Details view, change “Solution Output: Solver Output”
• Scroll to the section shown below, right at the initiation of the solution
(Use Ctrl+F and search for “SHELL281”). Note that KEYOPT(8)=2 has
been set.
set By default
default, Mechanical will set layered shell elements to save
all data for all layers. In the case of very large models with many layers,
the result file may become very big, so please keep this in mind.
• If automatic setting
g of KEYOPT(8)
( ) is not desired,, in the Details view of the
“Geometry” branch, change “Element Control” to “Manual”
• The default behavior is to only store the bottom of the bottommost layer and
the top of the topmost layer.

Workshop 5
… Review the Results Training Manual
14. Review the displacement results

– Note that the geometry, loads, and boundary conditions are symmetric,
yet the results are asymmetric. This asymmetry in results is due to the
orientation
i t ti off ththe layers.
l In
I this
thi case, the
th material
t i l directions
di ti are nott
symmetric. This is an important point to keep in mind, as composite
structures cannot take advantage of symmetry unless the loading,
geometry,
g y, and material directions all exhibit the same planes
p of
symmetry.

Workshop 5
15. Expand the “Commands (ANSYS)” branch and review the plots
• Each plot has a title, shown on the bottom-right. The plot below
indicates the layer that has the max failure value (layer 1 is the bottom,
l
layer 3 is
i the
th top
t layer)
l )

Workshop 5
16. When finished reviewing the results, close Mechanical. From the
Workbench Schematic, right-click on the “Solution” cell (A6) and
“Transfer Data To New > Mechanical APDL”. Right-click and
“Update” the “Analysis” cell (B2),
( ) iff needed
17. Right-click on the “Analysis” cell (B2) and select “Edit in

Mechanical APDL…” to launch Mechanical APDL

Workshop 5
… Postprocessing in Mechanical APDL Training Manual
• The next section will review postprocessing of composite elements

inside of Mechanical APDL.
• The following will be covered:
– Plotting of layers of composite elements
– Plotting of results per layer
– Plotting
g of failure criteria

Workshop 5
1. In the Command Prompt, type RESUME to resume the database

• Alternatively, use “Utility Menu > File > Resume from Jobname.db …”
2. Both 8-node quad SHELL281 elements and SURF154 surface effect
elements (for pressure loading) are present. List the element types
by typing ETLIST in the Command Prompt

Workshop 5
3. Select only the SHELL281 elements by entering

ESEL,S,ENAME,,281 in the Command Prompt
• Feedback will be presented in the Output Window indicating a subset of
elements selected:
• Question: What are other ways to only select the structural shell
elements?
l t ? ((answer on nextt page))

Workshop 5
4. To plot the layer orientation, select “Utility Menu > Plot > Layered
Elements…”
– Select any element, then click on [OK] in the Picker (or use Middle
mouse button)
– Click on [OK] in the dialog box that appears. The 3 layer orientation is
shown graphically for the element
Answer for previous slide: ESEL,S,TYPE,,1 or ESEL,S,MAT,,1 or ESEL,S,REAL,,1 or

ESEL,S,SEC,,1 since the element attribute IDs for the shell are all “1”
Workshop 5
• Visually confirming the layer orientation is helpful in many situations:

– The material and angle are shown on the right and left, respectively
– The materials are differentiated by color, and the orientation is also
shown in the stiped lines
– The legend shows the element number and number of layers plotted (vs.
total)
• APDL command
d iis LAYPLOT

Workshop 5
5. Enter the following commands in the Command Prompt:

• /ESHAPE,1
• /EFACET,2
• EPLOT
The above commands plot

each element with the
layer properties shown in
3D along with 2 facets
Notice the 3 layers shown
in the plot on the right
The circled region is
actually a single element

Workshop 5
6. “Main Menu > General Postproc > Options for Outp”

• Change “[RSYS] Results coord system” to “As calculated”
• Change “[LAYER] Layer results are from” to “Specified Layer” and enter
“1” for “Specified layer number”. Click on [OK]

Workshop 5
7. “Main Menu > General Postproc > Read Results > Last Set”
– APDL Command is SET,LAST

Workshop 5
8. To plot unaveraged results, use “General Postproc > Plot Results >
Contour Plot > Element Solution”
– Select “Element Solution > Stress > X-Component of stress”
– Click on [OK] to plot results
Equivalent APDL Command is PLESOL,S,X

Workshop 5
• Locate the region with the highest stress in the x-direction

– Notice that the stress is shown on the 3D model

Workshop 5
9. In the Command Prompt, enter /ESHAPE then /REPLOT

• Notice that with the 3D display turned off, only results for layer #1 are
now displayed. Notice the min/max values of the legend change.

Workshop 5
10. “Main Menu > General Postproc > Failure Criteria > Add/Edit”
• A dialog box will appear to select Material ID 1; click on [OK]
• The failure criteria (input earlier in a “Commands” object in Mechanical)
is displayed in the dialog box. Click [OK] when done.

Workshop 5
11. Plot the max stress failure criteria via “Main Menu > General
Postproc > Plot Results > Contour Plot > Element Solu”
• Select “Element Solution > Failure Critera > Maximum Stress”
• Click on [OK]

Workshop 5
• Using the Maximum Stress Failure Criterion, the elements in layer 1

would not be considered to fail (value < 1.0).

Workshop 5
• Although manual verification is tedious, a single element is examined

below. The stresses from the element are used to calculate the max
failure criterion manually (light blue), and these values match well
with the ANSYS
S S output (light
( green))
Element 288 Shell Top
NODE SX SY SXY SYZ SXZ
36 18027 3457.6 1308.5 16.723 58.322
323 24998 3421.5 1985.8 24.276 23.073
5 17970 3479 2587.6 -1.9783 -8.8471
1 34875 3599.5 1727.3 3.663 -68.25
Limits 2.20E+05 6.35E+03 1.26E+04 9.80E+03 1.26E+04

Maximum ANSYS
36 8.21E-02 5.45E-01 1.04E-01 1.71E-03 4.63E-03 0.5445 0.5445
323 1.14E-01 5.39E-01 1.58E-01 2.48E-03 1.83E-03 0.5388 0.5388
5 8.19E-02 5.48E-01 2.05E-01 -2.02E-04 -7.02E-04 0.5479 0.5479
1 1.59E-01 5.67E-01 1.37E-01 3.74E-04 -5.42E-03 0.5669 0.5669
• For this particular element, failure is dominated by the y-direction.

• Although
Alth h max stress
t criterion
it i is i usedd in
i this
thi example,
l it was usedd
because it is the simplest model (easy to perform hand calculations).
The user should use engineering judgement to determine the most
suitable failure criterion for a given application
application.

Workshop 5
12. Use “Utility Menu > File > Exit …” to exit Mechanical APDL
• The data need not be saved
• In the Workbench Project Schematic, you may choose to delete the

“Mechanical APDL” system once postprocessing is complete since
this system
y is only
y used for interactive p
postprocessing
p g
• Using techniques discussed earlier, one may interactively
postprocess in Mechanical APDL, then copy the relevant, annotated
sections of the log
g file to use as a “Commands” object
j in
Mechanical for automated plot generation
• This concl
concludes
des the present workshop
orkshop


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Workshop 5

ANSYS Mechanical Advanced

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• A 3-layer cylindrical composite structure will be analyzed:

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• A composite or layered element consists of a single element with

• Mechanical APDL includes many types of composite elements:

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• Composite elements are efficient for layered or multi-material

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• In this workshop, the following will be covered:

• Informative text in this workshop is preceded by bullet point whereas

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

1. Launch ANSYS Workbench 12.0

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

3. Double-click on the “Setup” cell (A5) to launch Mechanical

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• In this exercise, the composite thickness layer as well as failure

• When using Commands objects with unit-dependent values, it is

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

6. Because postprocessing will be performed in Mechanical APDL, set

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

7. Select the “Geometry > Surface Body” branch.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

8. Switch to the Workbench Project Schematic, and open

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

9. In Mechanical, right-click on the “Surface Body” branch and “Insert

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

10. In the Details view of the “Commands (ANSYS)” object, enter

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• The first set of commands delete the current section ID (ID=MATID),

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• The material parameters for failure criteria is specified in the next

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• The maximum stress and Tsai-Wu failure criteria are discussed in

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

11. Right-click on “Solution (A6)” and “Insert > Commands”

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• The postprocessing APDL commands are a little more involved than

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

13. Solve the model

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

14. Review the displacement results

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

17. Right-click on the “Analysis” cell (B2) and select “Edit in

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

• The next section will review postprocessing of composite elements

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

1. In the Command Prompt, type RESUME to resume the database

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

3. Select only the SHELL281 elements by entering

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

Answer for previous slide: ESEL,S,TYPE,,1 or ESEL,S,MAT,,1 or ESEL,S,REAL,,1 or

• Visually confirming the layer orientation is helpful in many situations:

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

5. Enter the following commands in the Command Prompt:

The above commands plot

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

6. “Main Menu > General Postproc > Options for Outp”

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary June 2009

Equivalent APDL Command is PLESOL,S,X