About Composites Link Import Zones

Below is some information about import options and behavior.

This page discusses:

See Also
Composites Link - Importing Plies
Composites Link - Importing Zones

3DEXPERIENCE Zones

3DEXPERIENCE zones are defined in a different way to analysis zones, so care must be taken in importing the analysis model.

The Zone Group references the underlying surface on which the zones lie. The underlying surface also indicates the draping direction, which is by default in the positive normal direction of the surface. A basic rosette (equivalent to a coordinate system) is also referenced.

The zones inside a Zone Group include the following addition information:

  • The geometry or extent of the zone is defined by an outer contour and zero or more inner contours lying on the underlying surface of the parent.
  • The laminate of a zone consists of an ordered or smeared description of the laminate layers in the directions predefined in the Composites Parameters of the 3DEXPERIENCE part.
  • While a rosette may be referenced which overrides the definition of the parent Zones Group, it is best if all zones in a Zones Group reference the same rosette.

When importing analysis zones into 3DEXPERIENCE, it is possible to only create pure geometry, or to add zone information as required.

Analysis Zones

The analysis zones are read from a Nastran input deck. Here, the composites properties are defined using PCOMP (Property COMPosites) cards that are usually referenced by shell finite elements. These exist in the Bulk Data section of the deck. The shell elements reference the PCOMPs, which in turn reference homogeneous materials.

...
BEGIN BULK
...
$ Elements and Element Properties for region: PCOMP.1
$ Composite Property Record created from P3/PATRAN composite material
$ record : PCOMP.1
$ Composite Material Description : generated by Laminate Modeler
PCOMP  1     -.66                              20.       0.
       7     .33       -45.     YES     7      .33      45.      YES
       7     .33        0.      YES     7      .33       0.      YES
$ Pset: "PCOMP.1" will be imported as : "pcomp.1"
CQUAD4 1      1         63      347     61      2        1
CQUAD4 2      1         64      348     347     63        1
CQUAD4 3      1         65      349     348     64        1
...
$ Referenced Material Records
$ Material Record: S1454_G803
$ Description of Matiral :
MAT8    7      66000.   66000.    .04     4100.    5000.     5000.    1.6-9
        1.2-5  1.2-5    20        375.    279.     368.      268.     46.
...
$ Loads for Load Case : DEFAULT.SC1
$ Referenced coordinate Frames
CORD2R   1              16.3067  -3.1641539.5127  -6.1801    33.3256  39.6645
        52.7966 19.3227 19.5127
...
ENDDATA b4420d00

The PCOMP cards list a number of layers that reference homogeneous materials. In the example above, there are four layers of material with the ID of 7 and of 0.33 thickness. The angle of these is -45, 45, 0 and 0 degrees with respect to the reference system of the PCOMP on the element. Unless the SMEAR or another specialized option is defined, the input data defines the exact position of the layer and indeed this is required for calculating layered stress results.

The PCOMP orientation is specified for each element and can be defined by a coordinates system, or an angle measured from the first edge of the element. Using a coordinates system is strongly advised to maximize communication between design and analysis worlds.

The stacking direction is defined by the positive normal direction of the respective element.

The elements referencing a PCOMP card may exist in multiple independent regions as there is no restriction on this. This means that when the zones are imported into 3DEXPERIENCE, one analysis PCOMP may correspond to several design zones.