I take the opportunity to present a newly implemented "hidden" feature in v4.3 which can be quite useful when defining material directions (A- and D-vectors) for shell-like structures which is to be modelled with solid elements. Say that the goal is to set A-vector as the main in-plane material axis, D-vector as the second in-plane axis and C (A x D) will hence be the "normal" direction to the shell-like structure. In this case, it is far from obvious how to do to align the A- and D-vectors, especially if the structure has a curvature. Up till now, it has been practically almost impossible to do this efficiently in LS-PrePost. The new "hidden" feature is that element orientation from a TSHELL_BETA will be transferred to the orientation of a SOLID_ORTHO element. So the "trick" is to define the element orientation on TSHELLs (where the normal direction is well defined) and then "Transfer" these elements in to SOLID_ORTHO. The link below is an animated gif which will show the procedure to set the element direction on TSHELL and Transfer these elements to SOLID_ORTHO and the A- and D-vectors will then be nicely aligned as the in-plane directions of the shell-like structure just as for the tshells. http://www2.dynamore.se/public/jernberg/tshell2solidortho.gif Anders LSPP user group 2/4/16 _______________________________________________________________________ Review: ElEdit - Composite is only for defining *ELEMENT_(T)SHELL_COMPOSITE (not solid elements). ElEdit - Direction lets you set the beta direction for SHELL_BETA and TSHELL_BETA and A and D vectors for SOLID_ORTHO. Anders LSPP user group 2/4/16 __________________________________________________________________________ See http://ftp.lstc.com/anonymous/outgoing/support/PRESENTATIONS/lsprepostcomposite.pdf . This includes slides addressing use of lines to orient orthotropic material directions (NEW!). ________________________________________________________________________________________ I have now added support in LS-PrePost v4.3 for reading/writing and defining the element direction for the new *_BETA_*COMPOSITE. keywords. The BETA direction is set in ElEdit - Direction. Drawn as black arrow. The ply angle Bi, is set in ElEdit - Composite. An unmodified ply angle Bi is drawn as a red arrow. A modified ply angle Bi is drawn as a green arrow. The total angle BETA+Bi is drawn as a blue arrow. Anders Jernberg 6/2/15 ________________________________________________________________ Right now, "elem edit->directions->orient" only change the element connectivity to make the element direction(N1->N2) match the seed element as well as possible, and does not try to create *ELEMENT_SHELL_BETA, which is not applicable to the model you are attaching. In order to handle this case, I try to add some codings in "ElemEdit->Composite->Direction->Map" so that LSPP 4.3(dated 25Jun or later) is capable of making these elements oriented well, the basic idea is: 1) create a curve to simulate the trend of element direction. 2) input command "elemedit composite beta 1" to tell LSPP that you want to create *ELEMENT_SHELL_BETA, currently one can only type the command manually, I may want to add the GUI in elem edit->directions->orient in future. 3) Apply. 4) go to "elem edit->directions" to check the element direction LSPP creates, if you think the direction would NOT be smooth enough, please go to "elem edit->directions->smooth" to apply the "smooth" trick. Attached demo is used to show you my operation steps, attached lspp_map.k is the result file LSPP created, circle.iges is the curve I created, let me know if it is ok for you, thanks. Regards, wangkai 6/24/15 3:00 am ElemDir.zip attached _______________________________________________________________ You can check tshell thickness: Fringe for both total tshell thickness and Ith layer thickness are done in 4.3 version dated 06Aug or later as shown in attached screen snapshot. A few of notes I want to convey: 1): If you want to fringe the current layer thickness(Ith layer thickness) with the d3plot file, the input deck has to loaded so that the layer info is read in and listed in the listbox in ElemEdit->Check->Tshell. 2): The input thicknesses info come from the *part_composite_tshell , *element_tshell_composite or *element_tshell_ beta_composite. 3): If you are fringing the layer thickness, and want to switch back to fringe the "total tshell thickness", just click the "Deselect" button. Wangkai 8/5/15 This LSPP also has the ability to flag when actual thickness of tshells (as determined by the node-to-node dimensions) are not in accordance with the sum of the integration point thicknesses given in *part_composite_tshell. This capability is invoked in the new GUI as follows: Applications > Model Checking > General Checking > Keyword Check > ELEMENT > TSHELL Double left click on any non-greyed-out Warnings to bring up a explanatory window explaining the warnings. Ticket#2015071510000083 Example: ~/test/composite/tshell_stretch_pcomp.k _______________________________________________________________ You can view shell thickness and material orientation by reading the keyword input deck into LS-PrePost. To render shell elements with their thickness represented, click Appear > Thick > All Vis. For you can fringe shell thickness using Fcomp > Misc > thickness. For layer orientation, click Ident > Element > Mat Dir > All Vis. An orientation triad is shown for a given layer (integration point). To set the layer (intergration point) number (old GUI), use Setting > Axes/Surface > Surface: IntPt > Apply. In the new GUI, the integration point number can be set directly in the Ident window. LSPP v. 4.3 can write a text file of axes vectors. It is in the Ident menu of the new GUI. Load d3plot and keyword file or just the keyword file. In the Ident menu check 'Part and Mat Dir', pick a part with orthotropic material and it should display the direction of the 'a' vectors. Press 'Write MatAxes' button and the material vectors are written to the lspost.msg file. With the Mat Dir checked it also writes the element x-axis direction vectors after the material direction vectors are written. I'm in the process of adding the writing out for picked elements, at the moment it only outputs for picked parts. dw 6/9/15 --------------------------------------- To transfer from one *ELEMENT_SHELL_option to another, go to Model>Keyword>Element, left click on SHELL, and select" Transfer to" Also works for solids. ---------------------------------------- More on coordinate systems in shells: Ident > Element > Elem Dir shows the element coordinate system the way LS-DYNA sees it when writing output in the element coordinate system. N1-to-N2 is x. This is the coordinate system in which elout (shell) stresses are output if CMPFLG=0. When invarient node numbering is invoked with *control_accuracy, the INTERNAL element coordinate system used by LS-DYNA for assessing element rotation is far more complicated than simply N1-to-N2 is x. But as far as input and output goes, what I said is correct... the element coordinate system is N1-to-N2 is x, and z is the shell normal direction. Ident > Element > Mat Dir shows the material coordinate system the way LS-DYNA sees it... taking into account the element BETA angle (*element_shell_BETA), material orientation data from *MAT, and material integration point Bi angles. This the coordinate system in which elout stresses are output if CMPFLG=1. EleEdit > Direction is a tool for modifying the element BETA angle, e.g., EleEdit > Direction > Shell > Rotate. LSPP describes this as "Element orientation (default material direction) interface". It only seems to show the effect of BETA heaped on top of the element coordinate system. So it's neither the element coordinate system nor the material coordinate system but rather something inbetween -- what Anders calls the ELEMENT REFERENCE SYSTEM. See also ./shell_coordinate_systems. jd 1/9/14 ----------------------------------- ElEdit-Direction sets the beta angle on the *ELEMENT_SHELL_* keyword, so this sets the element direction. Note that the direction set here is a pure element property. If you want to modify the internal node order of the element; which node is node 1, which is node 2 and so on, then you should use ElEdit-Align. This also alters the element direction. Both theses options changes the element direction. regards, Anders LSPP group 9/17/15 __________________________________________________________________________________ In 4.2 version dated 22Feb or later, a new feature called "Align" in ElemEdit dialog is added which you can use to get consistent tshell/solid/shell element directions, all you have to do is just to pick a seed element(please note lspp will also determine the picked face and the edge that is close to the mouse is the one being used as N1-N2 when you pick the element), then Align->Accept, as shown in attached picture. You can have a try when you get a chance, BTW, the win64 version is already available on our ftp site. wangkai 2/23/14 _______________________________________________________ There is a composite building module in LS-PrePost 4.2 to create *ELEMENT_SHELL_COMPOSITE. Take a look at EleTol > EleEdit > Composite To view the material direction, pick the part you want to inspect using the "PID" toggle. Switch to "Direction" radio button. Then, just select the ply in the list for which you want to inspect the material direction. To some extent, you can modify the material direction in solids using EleTol > EleEdit > Direction > Solid (This creates *element_solid_ortho data.) -----NEW----------- Added option "Solid ortho" in the GUI for Output - Dynain ASCII. This option causes LSPP to write element_solid_ortho for all solid elements that are using orthotropic material. The A and D vectors are corresponding to the material directions for the output state. The rotation of the material system is rotated in the same way is it is done in LS-DYNA. That is, the effect of INN also considered. Anders Jernberg, 1/23/14, bugzilla 9262 (Must read in keyword input AND d3plot.) -----end NEW--------- _______________________________________________________ RE: Ply dropoff for composites In the latest v4.2, there is a new tutorial added in Help > Tutorial > Model > Model composite laminate with dropped plies That tutorial is intended to show how to model composites using *element_shell_composite. If you don't see this tutorial, download the "Tutor" file (dated 10/28/13 or later) located under http://ftp.lstc.com/anonymous/outgoing/lsprepost/4.2/doc. Both the "Tutor" and accompanying "Document" files should be extracted into the "resource/HelpDocument" subfolder under the folder where the LS-PrePost 4.2 executable resides. 10/25/13 Bugzilla 7806 addresses an request to allow zero thickness in *element_shell_composite as a way of dropping plies. Not sure how this relates to the aforementioned Tutorial in LSPP. ______________________________________________________ See http://www.dynamore.de/en/downloads/infodays/dokumente/2013-composites _______________________________________________________ See also notes in: http://ftp.lstc.com/anonymous/outgoing/jday/composites/part_composite_public http://ftp.lstc.com/anonymous/outgoing/jday/faq/composite.models