User Area > Advice
Model 16 - Orthotropic Materials
In order to use orthotropic materials
either make a regular mesh or use a composite material lay-up.
A regular mesh is not always possible in all situations.
If you have an irregular mesh the element axes will not
necessarily aligned with the surface axis. If a thick
shell elements is used, such as QTS4 that has composite
properties, in combination with an orthotropic material,
by default the material axes will follow the element axes.
You can align the orthotropic material in any direction
by using a local co-ordinate dataset (Attributes > Local
Coordinates...). When a Cartesian co-ordinate set is generated
and you assign an orthotropic material to a selected feature
you will then be given the option to assign to lines surfaces
etc. in addition to specifying its orientation to a local
co-ordinate system.
Once a local co-ordinate system is created you can then
transform results to be orientated with the directions of
the local co-ordinate axis. Further information on
local co-ordinate systems can be found in the Modeller User
Manual page 167.
For an example on the use of composite lay-up please see
our Composite Example Manual "Linear Analysis of a
composite strip". For the orthotropic materials
rather than the model "5-thick" use "6-solid".
This in combination with the composite lay-up (Attributes
> Composites...) should solve the problem that can be
experiencing with "model 16". Align of the
orthotropic material in any direction can be done by using
a local co-ordinate dataset (Attributes > Local Coordinates...).
Note that in a composite analysis the material lay-up automatically
assigns the material dataset to the model at the same time.
The material dataset therefore does not have to be directly
assigned to features.
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