STRUCTURAL: Chapter 11: Composites (UP19980818)

Chapter 11: Composites

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11.1 Definition of Composites

Composite materials have been used in structures for a long time. In recent times composite parts have been used extensively in aircraft structures, automobiles, sporting goods, and many consumer products. Composite materials are those containing more than one bonded material, each with different structural properties. The main advantage of composite materials is the potential for a high ratio of stiffness to weight. Composites used for typical engineering applications are advanced fiber or laminated composites, such as fiberglass, glass epoxy, graphite epoxy, and boron epoxy. The ANSYS program allows you to model composite materials by using specialized elements called layered elements. Once you build your model using these elements, you can do any structural analysis (including nonlinearities such as large deflection and stress stiffening). No layered elements are currently available for thermal, magnetic, or electric field analysis.

11.2 Modeling Composites

Composites are somewhat more difficult to model than an isotropic material such as iron or steel. You need to take special care in defining the properties and orientations of the various layers since each layer may have different orthotropic material properties. In this section, we will concentrate on the following aspects of building a composite model:
q q q q

Choosing the proper element type Defining the layered configuration Specifying failure criteria Following modeling and postprocessing guidelines

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11.2.1 Choosing the Proper Element Type

The following element types are available to model composite materials: SHELL99, SHELL91, and SOLID46. In the ANSYS/LinearPlus program, only SHELL99 is available. Which element you choose depends on the application, the type of results that need to be calculated, and so on. SHELL99 - Linear Layered Structural Shell Element SHELL99 is an 8-node, 3-D shell element with six degrees of freedom at each node. It is designed to model thin to moderately thick plate and shell structures with a side-to-thickness ratio of roughly 10 or greater. For structures with smaller ratios, you may consider using SOLID46. The SHELL99 element allows a total of 250 uniform-thickness layers. Alternately, the element allows 125 layers with thicknesses that may vary bilinearly over the area of the layer. If more than 250 layers are required, you can input your own material matrix. The element also allows failure criterion calculations. It also has an option to offset the nodes to the top or bottom surface. SHELL91- Nonlinear Layered Structural Shell Element SHELL91 is similar to SHELL99 except that it allows only up to 100 layers and does not allow you to input a material property matrix. However, SHELL91 supports plasticity, large-strain behavior and a special sandwich option, whereas SHELL99 does not. SHELL91 is also more robust for large deflection behavior. SOLID46 - 3-D Layered Structural Solid Element SOLID46 is a layered version of the 8-node, 3-D solid element, SOLID45, with three degrees of freedom per node (UX, UY, UZ). It is designed to model layered shells or layered solids and allows up to 250 uniform-thickness layers per element. Alternately, the element allows 125 layers with thicknesses that may vary bilinearly over the area of the layer. An advantage with this element type is that you can stack several elements to model more than 250 layers to allow through-the-thickness deformation slope discontinuities. The user-input constitutive matrix option is also available. SOLID46 has an effective stiffness in the transverse direction permitting non-zero stresses, strains, and displacements in the transverse direction. Failure criteria may be specified. In comparison to the 8-node shells, SOLID46 is a lower order element and finer meshes may be required for shell applications to provide the same accuracy as SHELL91 or SHELL99. Besides the layered elements, you can also use SHELL63, the 4-node shell element, for rough, approximate studies of sandwich shell models. A typical application would be a polymer between two metal plates, where the bending stiffness of the polymer would be small relative to the bending stiffness
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STRUCTURAL: Chapter 11: Composites (UP19980818)

of the metal plates. The bending stiffness can be adjusted by the real constant RMI to represent the bending stiffness due to the metal plates, and distances from the middle surface to extreme fibers (real constants CTOP, CBOT) can be used to obtain output stress estimates on the outer surfaces of the sandwich shell. It is not used as frequently as SHELL91 or SHELL99, and will not be considered again in this section.

11.2.2 Defining the Layered Configuration

The most important characteristic of a composite material is its layered configuration. Each layer may be made of a different orthotropic material and may have its principal directions oriented differently. For laminated composites, the fiber directions determine layer orientation. Two methods are available to define the layered configuration:
q q

By specifying individual layer properties By defining constitutive matrices that relate generalized forces and moments to generalized strains and curvatures (available only for SOLID46 and SHELL99)

Both methods use the element real constant table for layer information. Each layered element obtains its layer configuration through its REAL attribute. Details of each method are described below.

11.2.2.1 Specifying Individual Layer Properties

With this method, the layer configuration is defined layer-by-layer from bottom to top. The bottom layer is designated as layer 1, and additional layers are stacked from bottom to top in the positive Z (normal) direction of the element coordinate system. SOLID46 and SHELL99 allow you to define only half of the layers if stacking symmetry exists. At times, a physical layer will extend over only part of the model. In order to model continuous layers, these dropped layers may be modeled with zero thickness. Figure 11-1 shows a model with four layers, the second of which is dropped over part of the model. 11-1 Layered model showing dropped layer

For each layer, the following properties are specified in the element real constant table [R, RMORE, RMODIF] (Main Menu>Preprocessor>Real Constants):

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q q q

Material properties (via a material reference number MAT) Layer orientation angle (THETA) Layer thickness (TK)

Material Properties-As with any other element, the MP command (Main Menu>Preprocessor>Material Props>-Constant-Isotropic) is used to define material properties. The only difference is that the material attribute for each element is specified in its real constant table. The MAT command (Main Menu>Preprocessor>-Meshing-Attributes> Default Attribs), which normally specifies the MAT attribute, is ignored for the layered elements. Typical material properties are Young's modulus (EX), density (DENS), shear modulus (GXY), and Poisson's ratio (PRXY or NUXY). The PRXY format is used to specify the major Poisson's ratio, and the NUXY format is used to specify the minor Poisson's ratio. Even if PRXY = PRYZ = PRXZ, it does not imply that NUXY = NUYZ = NUXZ. In practice, orthotropic material data are most often supplied in the major Poisson's ratio form. Material directions refer to the layer coordinate system, which is defined by the layer orientation angle (described below). Layer Orientation Angle-This defines the orientation of the layer coordinate system with respect to the element coordinate system. It is the angle (in degrees) between X-axes of the two systems. By default, the layer coordinate system is parallel to the element coordinate system. All elements have a default coordinate system which you can change using the ESYS element attribute [ESYS] (Main Menu>Preprocessor> Attributes>Default Attribs). You may also write your own subroutines to define the element and layer coordinate systems (USERAN and USANLY); see the Guide to ANSYS User Programmable Features for details. Layer Thickness-If the layer thickness is constant, you only need to specify TK(I), the thickness at node I. Otherwise, the thicknesses at the four corner nodes must be input. Dropped layers may be represented with zero thickness. Note-Currently, the GUI only allows layer real constant input of up to 100 layers. If more layers are needed, the R and RMORE commands must be used.

11.2.2.2 Defining the Constitutive Matrices

This is an alternative to specifying the individual layer properties and is available as an option [KEYOPT (2)] for SOLID46 and SHELL99. The matrices, which represent the force-moment and strain-curvature relationships for the element, must be calculated outside the ANSYS program as outlined in the ANSYS Theory Reference. They can be included as part of the solution printout with KEYOPT(10). The main advantages of the matrix approach are:
q q

It allows you to incorporate an aggregate composite material behavior. A thermal load vector may be supplied.

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q

The matrices may represent an unlimited number of layers.

The terms of the matrices are defined as real constants. Mass effects are incorporated by specifying an average density (real constants AVDENS) for the element. If the matrix approach is used, detailed results in each layer cannot be obtained since individual layer information is not input.

11.2.2.3 Sandwich and Multiple-Layered Structures

Sandwich structures have two thin faceplates and a thick, but relatively weak, core. Figure 11-2 illustrates sandwich construction. The core is assumed to carry all of the transverse shear; the faceplates carry none. Conversely, the faceplates are assumed to carry all (or almost all) of the bending load. You can model sandwich structures with SHELL63, or SHELL91. SHELL63 has one layer but permits sandwich modelling through the use of real constants. You can modify the effective bending moment of inertia and the distance from the middle surface to the extreme fibers to account for the weak core. SHELL91 allows the use of 3 layers with different properties in the face plates and core. KEYOPT(9)=1 of SHELL91 specifies the sandwich option. Only SHELL91 has this sandwich option. Figure 11-2 Sandwich construction

11.2.2.4 Node Offset

The node offset option (KEYOPT(11)) of SHELL91 and SHELL99 locates the element nodes at the bottom, middle or top surface of the shell. The figures below illustrate how you can conveniently model ply dropoff in shell elements that are adjacent to each other. In Figure 11-3, the nodes are located at the middle surfaces (KEYOPT(11)=0) and these surfaces are aligned. In Figure 11-4, the nodes are located at the bottom surfaces (KEYOPT(11)=1) and these surfaces are aligned. Figure 11-3 Layered shell with nodes at midplane for SHELL91 and SHELL99

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Figure 11-4 Layered shell with nodes at bottom surface for SHELL91 and SHELL99

11.2.3 Specifying Failure Criteria

Failure criteria are used to learn if a layer has failed due to the applied loads. You can choose from three predefined failure criteria or specify up to six failure criteria of your own (user-written criteria). The three predefined criteria are:
q q q

Maximum Strain Failure Criterion, which allows nine failure strains. Maximum Stress Failure Criterion, which allows nine failure stresses. Tsai-Wu Failure Criterion, which allows nine failure stresses and three additional coupling coefficients. You have a choice of two methods of calculating this criterion. The methods are defined by Equations 14.99-35 and 14.99-36 of the ANSYS Theory Reference manual.

The failure strains, stresses, and coupling coefficients may be temperature-dependent. See the ANSYS Elements Reference for details about the data required for each criterion. To specify a failure criterion, use the TB, TBTEMP, and TBDATA commands (Main Menu>Preprocessor> Material Props>Data Tables). A typical sequence of commands to specify a failure criterion is shown below. TB,FAIL,1,2 TBTEMP,,CRIT ! Data table for failure criterion, material 1, ! no. of temperatures = 2 ! Failure criterion key

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TBDATA,2,1 ! Maximum Stress Failure Criterion (Const. 2 = 1) TBTEMP,100 ! Temperature for subsequent failure properties TBDATA,10,1500,,40,,10000 ! X, Y, and Z failure tensile stresses (Z value ! set to a large number) TBDATA,16,200,10000,10000 ! XY, YZ, and XZ failure shear stresses TBLIST TBTEMP,200 ! Second temperature TBDATA,... See the ANSYS Commands Reference for a discussion of the TB, TBTEMP, TBDATA and TBLIST commands. Some notes about specifying failure criteria:
q

The criteria are orthotropic, so you must input the failure stress or failure strain values for all directions. (The exception is that compressive values default to tensile values.) If you don't want the failure stress or strain to be checked in a particular direction, specify a large number in that direction (as shown in the previous example).

User-written failure criteria may be specified via user subroutines USRFC1 through USRFC6. These subroutines should be linked with the ANSYS program beforehand; see the ANSYS Advanced Analysis Techniques Guide for a brief description of user-programmable features.

11.2.4 Additional Modeling and Postprocessing Guidelines

Some additional guidelines for modeling and postprocessing of composite elements are presented below. 1. Composites exhibit several types of coupling effects, such as coupling between bending and twisting, coupling between extension and bending, etc. This is due to stacking of layers of differing material properties. As a result, if the layer stacking sequence is not symmetric, you may not be able to use model symmetry even if the geometry and loading are symmetric, because the displacements and stresses may not be symmetric. 2. Interlaminar shear stresses are usually important at the free edges of a model. For relatively accurate interlaminar shear stresses at these locations, the element size at the boundaries of the model should be approximately equal to the total laminate thickness. For shells, increasing the number of layers per actual material layer does not necessarily improve the accuracy of interlaminar shear stresses. With SOLID46 elements, however, stacking elements in the thickness direction should result in more accurate interlaminar stresses through the thickness. Interlaminar transverse shear stresses in shell elements are
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based on the assumption that no shear is carried at the top and bottom surfaces of the element. These interlaminar shear stresses are only computed at the centroid and are not valid along the shell element boundaries. Use of shell-to-solid submodeling is recommended to accurately compute all of the free edge interlaminar stresses. 3. Because a large amount of input data is required for composites, you should verify the data before proceeding with the solution. Several commands are available for this purpose:
q q

ELIST (Utility Menu>List>Elements) lists the nodes and attributes of all selected elements. EPLOT (Utility Menu>Plot>Elements) displays all selected elements. Using the /ESHAPE,1 command (Utility Menu>PlotCtrls>Style>Size and Shape) before EPLOT causes shell elements to be displayed as solids with the layer thicknesses obtained from real constants (see Figure 11-5). It also causes SOLID46 elements to be displayed with layers. /PSYMB,LAYR,n (Utility Menu>PlotCrls>Symbols) followed by EPLOT displays layer number n for all selected layered elements. This can be used to display and verify each individual layer across the entire model. /PSYMB,ESYS,1 followed by EPLOT displays the element coordinate system triad for those elements whose default coordinate system has been changed.

Figure 11-5 Example of an element display (SHELL99) with /ESHAPE turned on

LAYLIST (Utility Menu>List>Elements>Layered Elements) lists the layer stacking sequence from real constants and any two material properties for SHELL99, SHELL91, and SOLID46 elements. You can specify a range of layer numbers for the listing. 1 FOR ELEMENT TYPE 1 0 LP2 = 0 EFS = .000E+00

LIST LAYERS 1 TO 4 IN REAL SET TOTAL LAYERS = 4 LSYM = 1 LP1 = NO. ANGLE THICKNESS MAT

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--- ----- ---------- --1 45.0 0.250 1 2 -45.0 0.250 2 3 -45.0 0.250 2 4 45.0 0.250 1 -----------------------SUM OF THK 1.00

LAYPLOT (Utility Menu>Plot>Layered Elements) displays the layer stacking sequence in the form of a sheared deck of cards (see Figure 11-6). The layers are cross-hatched and color coded for clarity. The hatch lines indicate the layer angle (real constant THETA) and the color indicates layer material number (MAT). You can specify a range of layer numbers for the display.

4. By default, only data for the bottom of the first (bottom) layer, top of the last (top) layer, and the layer with the maximum failure criterion value are written to the results file. If you are interested in data for all layers, set KEYOPT(8)=1. Be aware, though, that this may result in a large results file. Figure 11-6 A sample LAYPLOT display for [45/-45/-45/45] stacking sequence

5. Use the ESEL,S,LAYER command to select elements that have a certain layer number. If an element has a zero thickness for the requested layer, the element is not selected. 6. Use the LAYER command (Main Menu>General Postproc> Options for Outp) in POST1 (or LAYERP26 (Main Menu> TimeHist Postpro>Define Variables) in POST26) to specify the layer number for which results are to be processed. The SHELL command (Main Menu>General Postproc>Options for Outp or Main Menu> TimeHist Prostpro>Define Variables) specifies a TOP, MID, or BOT location within the layer. The
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default in POST1 is to store results for the bottom of the bottom layer, and the top of the top layer, and the layer with the maximum failure criterion value. In POST26, the default is layer 1. If KEYOPT(8)=1 (that is, data stored for all layers), the LAYER and LAYERP26 commands store the TOP and BOT results for the specified layer number. MID values are then calculated by average TOP and BOT values. For transverse shear stresses, therefore, POST1 can only show a linear variation whereas the element solution printout can show a parabolic variation. 7. By default, POST1 displays all results in the global Cartesian coordinate system. Use the RSYS command (Main Menu>General Postproc>Options for Outp) to transform the results to a different coordinate system. In particular, RSYS,SOLU allows you to display results in the layer coordinate system if LAYER is issued with a non-zero layer number.

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