Spring 2018

Modelling in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering -

Thermomechanics
41748

EXERCISE 11

The purpose of this exercise is to get an overview on how classical laminate theory can be
implemented in ANSYS. We will look at the manufacturing of a half wind turbine blade like
part with the geometry as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Part geometry

The laminate for this part consists of the lay-up as was used in Exercise 9 and shown in
Figure 2

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 z(0)
90o x
i=1
z(1)
i=2 45o y
z(2)
o
i=3 -45 z
z(3)
i=4 0o
Center line z(4) = 0
o
i=5 0
z(5)
o
i=6 -45
z(6)
o
i=7 45
z(7)
o
i=8 90
z(8)
Figure 2: Laminate lay-up and global coordinate system.

The composite is made of unidirectional (UD) lamina with thicknesses of 0.005 m and with
the following orthotropic material properties:

E1 = 70e9 Pa

E2 = 3e9 Pa

v12 = 0.3

G12 = 27e9 Pa

The thermal expansion coefficient is

αCTE = 30e-5 C-1

In this case we will not consider the contribution of strains coming from the curing process
itself (chemical strain), and hence the only process induced strain is the thermal strain.
However, compared to Exercise 10, we will assume that the thermal strain only has an
effect after the resin has fully cured, and will contribute during cooling down to room
temperature. Our simulation will therefore have an initial temperature of 120 oC, and we
will let the composite cool down to 20 oC in one step and see how this affects the residual
stress profile in the laminate.

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1. Preliminaries
Start by creating a folder named ‘Exercise 11’, which will be the working directory
for the ANSYS project.
Start ANSYS Mechanical APDL
Select file -> change directory and change the directory to the folder you just
created.
Save the database (DB) as ‘exercise11.db’.

2. As we will mainly focus on the implementation of the laminate, the model geometry and
elements are given by APDL key instructions.
Download the ‘input.apdl’ file from CampusNet.
Copy the script and paste it in the Command Prompt in ANSYS and press Enter.
ANSYS should now generate the overall model and you should see the discretized
blade as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Geometry from running the script file.

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3. The orthotropic material properties should now be defined.
Preprocessor->Material Models->Structural->Linear->Elastic->Orthotropic

4. Define also the isotropic thermal expansion coefficient in Structural->Thermal

Expansion->Instantaneous Coefficient

5. The lay-up should now be defined. Go to Preprocessor->Sections->Shell->Lay-up-

>Add / Edit
Define the 8 lamina orientations and thicknesses in the dialog box as shown here below

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Click OK.

6. You now have to mesh the blade geometry. Go to Preprocessor->Meshing->MeshTool

and mesh the part with the default settings.

You can now visualize the laminate lay-up by PlotCtrls->Style->Size and Shape and
Display of element ‘On’. If you then zoom-in on the geometry you should be able to see
the 8 layers.

7. The reference temperature should be the curing temperature of 120 oC. Solution->Define
Loads->Settings->Reference Temperature

[TREF] Reference Temperature: 120

8. Define the final temperature as a thermal boundary conditions. Solution>Define Loads-

>Apply->Structural->Temperature->On Areas

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[VAL1] Temperature: 20

9. In addition to thermal boundary conditions (reference temperature and thermal load),

mechanical boundary conditions should be defined:

Solution>Define Loads>Apply>Structural>Displacement>On Keypoints

Select the keypoint on the lower left corner of the blade.

 Lab2 DOFs to be constrained: All DOF

 Apply as: Constant value

 VALUE Displacement value: 0

As we will simulate the manufacturing in an autoclave the displacement in the z-direction

should be constrained for the whole blade

Solution>Define Loads>Apply>Structural>Displacement>On Areas

Select the area of the blade.

 Lab2 DOFs to be constrained: UZ

 Apply as: Constant value

 VALUE Displacement value: 0

10. Solve the thermomechanical problem:

Solution->Analysis Type-> New Analysis

[Static]

Solution->Solve->Current LS

Close the “/STATUS Command” window

OK. (“Solve Current Load Step” window)

Post processing

11. Visualize the thermal strain in the blade

General Postproc->Plot Results->Contour Plot->Nodal Solution

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Select Thermal Strain->X-component of thermal strain
Is the thermal strain uniform and is the value what you would expect?

Documentation: 1 graph

12. We would now like to examine the stresses in the 2-direction of each individual lamina.
In order to plot stresses from a lamina, you have to type Layer, 1 in the command prompt
in order to get the data from lamina 1. Make a contour plot of the residual stresses in the 2-
direction (y-component of stress).

Documentation: 1 graph

13. For each of the eight laminas, read out the stress in the 2-direction at the center of the
tip of the blade, as illustrated on Figure 4.

Figure 4: Point at the blade tip to read out the residual stress component in the 2-direction
for each of the lamina.

Plot the stresses you read out as a function of the lamina number.

Documentation: 1 graph

Compare those results with residual stresses found from your own MATLAB code. This
means that you should modify your code from Exercise 10 to match the material properties,
lamina orientations, process strain definition, etc, to what you just used for simulation in
ANSYS. Does these numbers compare at all? Discuss the differences between the two
models (ANSYS and MATLAB).

Documentation: 1 graph