About Composites Fiber Modeling

About Composites Fiber Modeling
1 of 8
file:///C:/Program Files/Dassault Systemes/B25doc/English/online/cpdug_C2/cpdugut2301.htm#ix-c...

Composites Fiber Modeling can be used successfully with the same input parameters as the standard fiber simulation
tool in Producibility.
However, to make full use of Composites Fiber Modeling capabilities, additional data can be provided to obtain a more
accurate simulation result. The additional data include:
Definition of a seed curve to constrain the fiber simulation along a curve.
Definition of one or more order of drape regions by means of contours on the surface of the ply.
Selection of advanced propagation types to reflect the behavior of materials according to the manufacturing
processes.
Preview of the flat pattern to provide excellent feedback on the fiber simulation.
With the enhanced Producibility dialog box, Composites Fiber Modeling allows you to define specific parameters and
store these in Producibility params.x under each ply. Those parameters may be:
Simulation: Advanced parameters. They affect the actual fiber simulation,
or Analysis: Advanced parameters. They affect the display of the fiber simulation results, are used for
additional display options provided by the solvers, which are added to the Deformation list.
Seed Point
The seed point is defined in same way as for the standard fiber simulation. However, Composites Fiber Modeling
supports seed points located on the boundary of the ply. This reflects the normal practice where the application of the
ply often begins along the edge of the region to be covered.
In general, the material is unsheared at the seed point and shearing increases away from that point. The amount of
shear in a ply made of a particular material increases with distance from the ply, and the degree of Gaussian curvature
of the surface (this is a reflection of the double-curved nature of the surface, when applicable). Therefore, to minimize
shear, the seed point should be located:
To minimize the distance to any part of the ply boundary - so the middle would reduce shear, at the cost of
being impractical.
To minimize the Gaussian curvature near the start point. In fact, it is a good idea to begin draping on a region
of near-zero Gaussian curvature if this is possible.
As an example, consider half of a pressure vessel which consists of a spherical cap with a cylindrical body. If the seed
point is on the cylindrical body, which has zero Gaussian curvature and is furthermore developable, limited shearing only
occurs over the spherical section.
By contrast, if the seed point is on the spherical section, shear builds up rapidly and the surface cannot even be
covered.
Seed Curve
A seed curve forces the warp, weft or bias directions of the fabric along a curve. The curve must pass through the seed
point, and must extend to the ply boundaries. In the following example, the bias direction of the fabric has been forced
along a curve through the middle of the spar. This results in a flat pattern with parallel sides, which is a tape.
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
2 of 8
The choice of whether the warp, weft or bias directions are forced along the curve depends on the relative alignment of
the nominal warp and weft directions at the seed point, and the seed curve at this point.
The woven construction of the fabric is defined by physical parameters that reflect the structure of the material.
In Composites Fiber Modeling, the Warp/Weft angle is defined under Simulation: Advanced parameters, and
information is found under Material parameters, while the Warp and Weft length ratio is set under the Mesh
parameters. For the purposes of defining the unit cell, it is the ratio of warp and weft lengths that is important. So, if
warp and weft lengths are the same, the bias directions are at +/- 45 degrees.
The axis forced along the seed curve is the closest to the seed curve at the seed point. For example, if the Warp/Weft
angle is 90 degrees and the warp and weft lengths are identical, and if the seed curve lies 30 degrees from the nominal
warp direction, the bias direction is closest to the seed curve and this is the direction forced along the seed curve.
This snapping to the nearest direction means that the actual and nominal warp directions at the seed point may be
slightly different - 15 degrees in the case above. This must be accounted for when using the inspection tool.
The seed point must be located on the seed curve, otherwise an error message is displayed. In practice, a tolerance of
1% of the square root of the ply area is allowed to permit small separations between seed point and seed curve
resulting from the Thickness Update capability, for example.
Order of Drape
The order of drape capability allows you to model the exact sequence used to apply fabric to surfaces on the shop floor.
The order of drape regions define smaller surfaces that are covered in one sequence, and which provide a stable initial
condition for subsequent application of material.
In the example below, we have defined three order of drape regions:
The first order of drape region marked in red (1) must contain the seed point, otherwise it is ignored.
At the end of the first sequence, the area defined by the second order of drape region marked in green (2) is
covered by fabric using the first order of drape as a starting point.
The third order of drape region (3) is similarly covered next.
Finally, all the remaining area of the ply is covered.
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
3 of 8
We do not recommend to have too many order of drape regions on a single ply. Usually, between one and two regions
are sufficient.
It is a good idea to define order of drape regions on relatively flat regions of the surface. This means that the position of
the seed point is not significant, and this lack of sensitivity follows through the simulation, resulting in a robust final
result, that will be easily manufacturable.
In general, it is best if the summed boundaries of all the order of drape regions are straight or convex. If they are
concave with respect to a warp or weft fiber, the fiber in the fabric might be over-constrained as shown below.
Here, the first order of drape region will drape perfectly well with its shape. But consider the red fiber as the drape
extends beyond the first region. Here, the fiber suddenly becomes over-constrained as the drape extends across the
concave boundary, so that the fibers become kinematically inadmissible.
To handle this situation, Composites Fiber Modeling will, by default, unstick fabric on one branch of the semi-circle
(keeping the branch where the red line is longest) to remove the excessive constraint. This behavior is followed if the
Inadmissible Mode is set to Delete, i.e. the constraint is deleted as necessary. Note that the flat pattern over the order
of drape region can change in subsequent drapes.
This situation of kinematic inadmissiblity can be resolved easily by simply placing a dart in the middle of the
semi-circular region using the limit contour capability as shown below. This dart removes the excessive constraint and
allows draping to proceed.
You can force Composites Fiber Modeling to keep the fabric stuck to the order of drape regions during subsequent
extensions if Inadmissible Mode is set to Cut. In this case, kinematically inadmissible fibers are avoided by
automatically generating a rough cut in the middle of a bounded length in an over-constrained fiber, such as that shown
in red in the figure above. This cut will only be created if the strain required in the fiber to allow it to conform to the
surface exceeds the inadmissible tolerance value set, or the displacement mismatch at the cut location exceeds half a
step length in the appropriate direction. This approach has the advantage of keeping the flat pattern in an order of
drape region constant during subsequent draping, but forces you to define a dart to specify the flat pattern shape
around the dart accurately. This methodology is recommended for highest accuracy on components like curved frames
where it is impossible to avoid concave order of drape boundaries.
Seed curve and order of drape can be combined if required, but the seed curve (and seed point) should lie in the first
order of drape region.
Mesh Parameters
The Mesh parameters define the architecture of the fabric, and the step lengths used for the fiber simulation.
Regarding the architecture of the fabric, the ratio between warp and weft is constant for a particular material and this
material property should be used consistently. This is especially important when using a seed curve.
The fiber simulation in Composites Fiber Modeling is relatively insensitive to step length. This makes the simulation
accurate for highly curved surfaces, and reduces sensitivity to step length.
Consider the following channel section. For a wide variety of step lengths (between 1 and 50 mm), the Composites Fiber
Modeling result predicted the same flat pattern. By contrast, the standard fiber simulation gave very different results
depending on the chosen step length, and large step lengths lead to very poor flat pattern results.
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
4 of 8
As a result of the insensitivity to step length, there is no need to have very small step lengths and this can, in fact, be
counter-productive.
Fine detail on the edge of the ply is picked up irrespective of the step length.
As can be seen in this screen-shot,
the warp and weft lines (blue) at the spacing requested by the user have crossed the line defining the ply boundary
(orange) at the location marked with circles (green).
The line showing the flat pattern (yellow) still contains the fine detail of the edge, which will reflect the local strain in the
ply.
There is no need to set a small spacing to pick up details
Please note that the fiber VISUALISATION in the Composites Workbench does not reflect the fact that the underlying
simulation in Composites Fiber Modeling follows the underlying surface exactly. However, this is simply a property of the
Composites Workbench and does not reflect the accuracy of the results.
Propagation Type
The propagation type reflects the way in which the fabric covers the surface.
Consider fabric placed on a surface beginning at the seed point with the principal warp and weft fibers defining seed
curves being shown in red below. If the red lines are constrained to the surface, the placement of the fabric bounded by
the green line is then uniquely defined.
Extending the material further to the ply boundary is done one free edge at a time. When extending a free edge, the
fabric behaves as a trellis and so the exact direction of growth is not fully defined. Therefore, assumptions must be
made of the direction of growth based on the material behavior and manufacturing method. Composites Fiber Modeling
provides several different propagation modes to cover the most important manufacturing options, that fall into three
categories.
Optimized Energy and Optimized Maxshear modes use a biaxial material model and a circular extension
strategy to model the hand layup of woven fabrics.
Second, the Tape and UD Tape modes use a strip extension strategy to simulate the application of biaxial or
uniaxial tape respectively in a way which accurately reflects the real-world application of butted tapes of
material onto a surface by manual means. This is also likely to reflect butted tape laying via automated means,
subject to the fact that the detailed characteristics of the tape laying machine are not known by Composites
Fiber Modeling.
Finally, the FEFlatten (Isotropic) propagation mode predicts the flattening of plies using finite element analysis
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
5 of 8
techniques and is applicable to fabrics without a biaxial or uniaxial microstructure.
Circular Propagation Modes

In the circular extension modes (Optimized Energy and Optimized Maxshear), free edges in the warp and weft
directions are extended alternately so that the ply extends uniformly in all directions away from the seed point. This
models the operator progressively smoothing the fabric onto the mould away from the seed point.
Propagation with circular strategy: alternate warp and weft extension:
The two options reflect different shear load deflection-behavior of the ply material. The best indicator of behavior is a
graph of the shear stress/strain response of the material. Typical stress-strain curves are shown below.
Typically, after a small elastic range, the material begins to shear significantly with little resistance. This continues up
until the warp and weft fibers begin to lock, and stiffness increases rapidly. The range of behaviors is wide and depends
on the weave architecture, presence of binder, and many other factors.
In general, Optimized Energy propagation type that seeks to minimize the shear strain energy on an extending
(propagating) edge gives excellent results for a wide variety of fabrics.
On the other hand, if locking occurs suddenly in the fabric (as in curve B above), it is better to limit the
maximum shear as much as possible. In this case, the Optimized Maxshear propagation mode is more suitable.
Whatever propagation mode, excellent results should be obtained as long as the material is cut to a net shape,
the seed point is accurately located, and the material is applied with due reference to the ply edge.
A sample drape using a circular propagation mode is shown below. The area of least shear spreads away from the start
point along the principal axes. The amount of shear is minimized by the algorithm actively working to limit the shear, as
a skilled operator would do.
Strip Propagation Modes

In the strip extension modes (Tape and UD Tape):
the first tape is extended from the seed point in the warp direction all the way to the ply boundary in both the
positive and negative warp directions.
Only once this first tape is laid are additional tapes abutted against the free weft edges of the preceding tapes.
For each new tape, the material strain is set to zero at the point of first application, which is defined as the
point in the most negative warp direction. This reflects the fact that the material is unsheared at the point of
first application on a surface. The rate of increase of shear along the tape depends on the width of the tape and
the Gaussian curvature of the surface.
Propagation with strip strategy: initial warp extension, then lateral weft
Both tape propagation modes use the same extension type but differ slightly in the material model used.
The Tape mode uses a standard biaxial material model where it is assumed that warp and weft fibers pivot
about their cross-over points so that an initially-square piece of material becomes a rhombus after shearing in a
scissor mode as shown below.
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
6 of 8
Importantly, the lengths of the sides remain constant as they are sheared.
Alternatively, for uniaxial materials modeled by the UD Tape option, parallel fibers are assumed to remain
parallel and equidistant, with shearing resulting from the relative sliding of fibers.
In practice, the results of the two material models converge on the same solution for small shears. At higher shears, the
warp fibers of a biaxial material close up, which tends to reduce the amount of shear in a ply covering a surface of
positive Gaussian curvature. In general, the Tape option will be more robust than the UD Tape option.
A sample drape using the Tape propagation model is shown below.
Note that:
the shear is zero along the principal warp direction as in this case, this follows a geodesic line on the surface.
the shear is zero by definition at the minimum warp end of each tape.
the degree of shear is higher than for the circular algorithm above.
FEFlatten Propagation Mode

The circular and tape propagation modes mentioned previously are based on a geometrical fiber simulation and give
excellent results for Uniaxial and Biaxial materials where the material deforms in a highly directional way with almost no
deformation along the fibers and concentrated deformation between fibers.
However, some materials used for Composites parts behave in a more isotropic manner with the material deforming in a
direction imposed by the applied force and tractions within the ply rather than forced in a particular direction due to the
underlying fiber architecture.
These include the following sheet materials commonly used in the manufacture of laminated structures:
Quadraxial Non-Crimp Fabrics (NCF)
Chopped Strand Mat (CSM)
Knitted Fabrics
Foam Cores
Vinyl and Leather
In order to calculate the flat and draped patterns of these materials, a purely geometrical approach cannot identify the
important load paths in the fabric as it is forced over a doubly-curved surface and instead a finite-element based
flattening (FEFlatten) solution is required.
The finite element flattening approach:
effectively calculates the initial flat shape of the ply assuming that the material is formed between two
frictionless dies. This allows the calculation of a smoothed minimum energy solution over the whole ply. The
solution is a sophisticated extension of the approach of McCartney et al (1999, 2005) coupled with the use of
nonlinear finite element analysis techniques.
The solution time can be expected to be of the order of minutes.
This technique can be thought of as lying between a purely geometrical simulation, taking seconds, and a
full-contact multi-ply finite element calculation, taking days.
A particular advantage of the FEFlatten solution is that interior holes can be free boundaries, so that surfaces
containing holes (or bumps/hollows surrounded by interior contours) can be solved without problems.
A comparison between geometrical fiber simulation and finite element flattening approaches is given in the
table below:
Geometrical Fiber Simulation
Finite Element Flattening
Initial value problem, local energy minimization
Boundary value problem, global energy minimization
Exact flatten around details
Flatten smeared by finite element definition
Solution in seconds
Solution in minutes
Holes cannot be free boundaries
Holes can be free boundaries
Uniaxial, Biaxial materials
Isotropic, general materials
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
7 of 8
A comparison of simulation results obtained through the standard Composites Fiber Modeling geometrical solvers, and
the Composites Fiber Modeling flattening solver, for a mesa-like protuberance on a gently curved surface is given below.
This clearly shows that by allowing strain along the fibers, the FEFlatten propagation mode reflects the reduction of peak
strains in the material.
Geometrical Fiber Simulation
Pin Jointed Net
Pure Shear Strain
Concentrated Deformation
Finite Element Flattening

Finite Elements
Shear + Normal Strain
Distributed Deformation
Display Modes
The 3D draped pattern for Composites Fiber Modeling is displayed in the same way as the standard fiber simulation. This
means that the result can be used for inspection and 2D-3D transfer, and can be stored as curves in the V5 part.
Note that the graphics visualization provided by CATIA does NOT reflect the underlying simulation completely in the
following respects:
Composites Fiber Modeling follows the surface EXACTLY, while the visualization only joins points on the surface
Composites Fiber Modeling continues the simulation to the edge of the ply, whereas the CATIA visualization
does not allow the display of partial fibers and so the "Lonely Points" are removed.
When using the enhanced producibility panel in CATIA V5R19 onwards, users can access specialized display modes
relevant to the fiber simulation. These give additional insight into the deformation of the ply over and above the degree
of pure shear visualised in the standard Shearing Angle display mode. Composites Fiber Modeling currently supports
display of the Steering Radius (not FEFlatten), and Axial Strain (only FEFlatten solver).
Steering Radius (not FEFlatten)

The steering radius is the radius of curvature of the fibers in the plane of the surface. This information is particularly
useful for investigating the viability of tape laying, where the forming limits of tape are usually characterized by the
minimum manufacturable radius of curvature.
The steering radius is also an additional measure of the degree of deformation in fabrics and can complement the
standard shearing angle display.
Axial Strain (only FEFlatten)

The FEFlatten solver admits the possibility of axial strain along the nominal warp and weft fibers. It is only valid for the
FEFlatten solver as the value would be zero for other solvers.
Display Flat Pattern

Composites Fiber Modeling computes the flat pattern instantaneously as an intrinsic feature of its simulation, thus
ensuring:
Accuracy, as it is an intrinsic part of the simulation process,
Speed, as no separate process is involved,
Clarity, as it is possible to visualize the 2D flat pattern at the same time as the 3D draped pattern.
To display the flat pattern at the same time as the draped pattern, simply check the "Display Flat Pattern" box. The flat
pattern will then be displayed in a plane parallel to the surface at the seed point, and with the correct orientation.
The feedback allowed by this feature gives the user immediate confidence in the quality of the fiber simulation.
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM
8 of 8
27-Feb-16 7:45 PM

About Composites Fiber Modeling

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

About Composites Fiber Modeling

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

About Composites Fiber Modeling

file:///C:/Program Files/Dassault Systemes/B25doc/English/online/cpdug_C2/cpdugut2301.htm#ix-c...