Greetings to all.
I am trying to make a composite ply sheet made up of 3 material, after assigning properties and visualizing ply stack layer it is NOT stacked along the thickness(which is needed) but in fact for some reason stacked along lateral direction.
I am attaching view-port image for reference , please guide me where I am going wrong.
Please assist me.
More details would be required to fully understand the issue. Providing the input file is always recommended and it often helps identifying the issue. At any case, the coordinate systems of both viewports are on the same and are not linked. The coordinate system from viewport 3 is the local material coordinate system, where 1 is always the reference/longitudinal axis, which corresponds to the direction 1 in your material model. The axis 3 corresponds always to the stacking direction and the local 2 direction is the cross product of both previous directions. Depending on your type of model, you might have different solutions:
Model is a composite shell:
You might assigned the correct layup to the sheet already, if the model is a shell. Some confusion might arise because you are showing two different viewports, each one with different coordinate systems. If your model is a shell, then the direction 3 is by definition in the thickness direction (check [1]), i.e, thickness and stacking direction are the same. And if that's the case, you should have no issues, since the thickness and stacking direction are already assigned.
Model is a 3D solid composite sheet:
If your model is a solid 3D model, then how you define the stacking sequence is important. For your specific case, you have to make sure that your Stacking Direction is on the "Element direction 2" and the rotation axis is around "Axis 2", of your global coordinate system. If you do that, you should be able to obtain your desired output.
[1] Abaqus CAE documentation: 5.3 Shell material directions https://classes.engineering.wustl.edu/2009/spring/mase5513/abaqus/docs/v6.5/books/gss/default.htm?startat=ch05s03.html
Vasco D.C Pires
Thanks for your kind consideration.
More to clarify:
The model is a shell-type thin plate. And material assigned is a composite type.(I want through thickness composite)
But, when I am visualizing the shell plate for composite ply-layup, using Tool-> Query->Ply Stack Plot, I don't know why it is not showing ply as through thickness.
I HAVE LINKED BOTH VIEWPORTS SO THEY ARE NOT SEPARATE BUT ONE ENTITY.
So, is it just a visualization mistake, or my materials are not stacked in the thickness direction as desired?
Thanks, for your time.
Hello again,
When your part is defined as a shell, the thickness direction should be correct, and the stacking sequence aligns along the thickness. What I meant by the viewports not being linked is that the coordinate systems of each viewport are not directly related. It doesn't matter if you actually linked them in the viewport options. Essentially, even though both viewports may display "1, 2, 3" axes, it's essential to understand that on the left viewport, it refers to the GLOBAL 1, 2, and 3 directions. On the other hand, on the right viewport, it denotes the LOCAL 1, 2, and 3 directions, defined according to your composite layup. In this context, 1 represents the longitudinal direction, 3 denotes the stacking direction, and 2 signifies the cross-product of both directions. This setup is consistent across all composite layups when using the query function in Abaqus CAE.
In most recent versions, ABAQUS CAE now actually have as global axes x,y and z and for the local material coordinate system it uses, the 1,2 and 3 directions, maybe to avoid confusions between the local and global coordinate systems. You can find on the attachments of this answer a picture of it. How you relate the local and the global coordinate system is defined in the Composite Layup section where you have several options.
At any case, for your purposes, if your part is a shell, the stacking and thickness direction should be the same automatically. However, since you are using a continuum shell section, that means that your part is actually a 3D solid part and not a shell. So you should be be careful and precise when you ask for help. In a continuum shell, you discretize an entire 3D body part. For this case, as I said in my previous answer, making sure that your Stacking Direction is on the "Element direction 2" and the rotation axis is around "Axis 2" is crucial. Perhaps you have those options on the advanced tab on your window. At any case, I attached a screenshot of how you define it in my version (2022).
Hope it helps!
Conventional shell versus continuum shell:
https://docs.software.vt.edu/abaqusv2022/English/SIMACAEELMRefMap/simaelm-c-shelloverview.htm
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