LAYOUTS: Plies
Description
Defines ply properties that can be assembled into a laminate stack in LAYOUTS: Laminates.
A ply is taken to be a thin layer of orthotropic material.
All changes made to ply properties are immediately propagated to the laminate definition (LAYOUTS: Laminates) and then onto the individual plate elements that reference those laminates.
The LAYOUTS: Plies sub-tab is divided into two panes: ply property list on the left, and ply data on the right.
Ply Property List
Situated on the left of the window, it lists the available ply properties.
Data Pane
Situated on the right of the window, it displays the material data of the current ply property.
MATERIAL CONSTANTS
Ply properties are defined similarly to orthotropic plate properties.
- Modulus (E1 / E2 / E3)
- Poisson's Ratio (ν12 / ν23 / ν31 / ν21 / ν32 / ν13)
- Shear Modulus (G12 / G23 / G31)
- Thermal Expansion (α1 / α2 / α3 / α12 / α23 / α31)
- Density
- Thickness
MATERIAL LIMITS
Specifies the allowable stress and strain for the ply. These values are used in the calculation of reserve factors in post-processing, but they do not affect the stiffness of the laminate.
Tension
-
Allowable tensile stress in 1 direction. -
Allowable tensile stress in 2 direction. -
Allowable tensile strain in 1 direction. -
Allowable tensile strain in 2 direction.
Compression
-
Allowable compression stress in 1 direction. -
Allowable compression stress in 2 direction. -
Allowable compression strain in 1 direction. -
Allowable compression strain in 2 direction.
Shear
-
Allowable in-plane shear stress. -
Allowable in-plane shear strain.
Interlamina Shear Stress
-
Allowable interlamina shear stress.
WEAVE [FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES]
A weave pattern can be selected for the ply material. It is used only to aid the visualisation and help identify the plies when they are drawn in the LAYOUTS: Laminates window. The weave patterns have no effect on the laminate stiffness or the analysis results.
Toolbar Functions
In addition to the common controls, the following functions are available:
Import ply data
Imports material parameters from the composite library into the current ply property. The function can also be executed on multiple ply properties at once by multi-selecting the ply names in the ply list: the same data will then be imported into all the selected ply properties.
See Plies: Import/Export Ply Data.
Export ply data
Exports the material parameters from the current ply property data into the composite library.
See Plies: Import/Export Ply Data.
See Also