J:ManualsCATIA V6 CompositesReleaseMaster · CATIA Composites 3DEXPERIENCE® R2017x Composites This course will cover all of the options found in the Composites Design and Composite
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This course will cover all of the options found in the Composites Design and CompositeManufacturing Preparation workbenches. The first portion of the book will focus on thedesign options. The second portion of the book will delve into the manufacturing side ofcomposite parts and how they will be created.
Please note that some additional environment variables have been activated for theComposites Design and Composite Manufacturing Preparation workbenches. Theseenvironment variables provide additional functionality and visualizations within the twoworkbenches. If these environment variables are not activated in your CATIA load, yourworkbenches may look slightly different.
This section will review the concepts and operations discussed in the previous sections ofthis manual.
Manual Ply Creation Review Exercise
In this section, manual plies will be created to define a composite part. The plies for thefirst half of the laminate will be created manually. Next, the user will create the plies forthe top half of the laminate by creating symmetric plies. Finally, the user will rename theplies using the interactive ply table.
Open the COMP - Manual Ply Review model. The model contains wireframe andsurface geometry for the initial definition of the composite part.
Select Carbon Fiber Cloth from the list and select OK. You are returned to theComposites Parameters window. Only one material will be used in this exercise.
Select the Rosettes tab and select the Add Rosette button. The Rosette Definition windowappears.
Select the axis system from the display to define the Axis system for the rosette andselect OK. The rosette is created.
Select OK to the Composite Parameters window. The parameters are defined.
First a ply group will need to be created to define the location for the plies to be stored.
Right select on Plies Group.1 and select Paste from the contextual menu. A secondsequence and ply has been created.
Notice the name of the ply matches the original ply. This will be fixed eventually. Thenew ply will use the same contour and the same attributes as the original. The attributeswill also need to be adjusted eventually.
Select the Stacking Management icon. The Stacking Management windowappears. You may have to adjust the options in the Column button to get the window toappear exactly the same.
Modify the Orientation Name for each ply as shown. You will use the Multiple RowEdition icon or the contextual menu.
Select OK. This defines the bottom half of the laminate.
Now the plies will be symmetried to create the other half of the laminate.
Set the Scale factor to be 2 and select OK. The cross section should appear as shown.
Notice the laminate is completely symmetric. This provides an easy method for creating avery simple layup of plies without having to define any zones. Keep in mind that if youwanted to have any staggering in the plies that are dropped off, you would have to createwireframe curves to be able to manually select the shape of each ply. For this reason, thismethod only works well for pretty simple laminates.
The following picture explains how the plies should eventually drop off. Three differentdrop off values will be used: 0.25in, 0.375in and 0.5in. In this case, a default drop off willbe set to begin with for all structural elements and then eventually the individual structuralelements will be modified to obtain the correct drop offs at each location.
Select all of the curves from the display as shown to define the first structural group. The curves could be split into multiple structural groups if necessary. In this case, only onegroup will be used.
Edit the group and set the default Offset to be 0 and the Step to be 0.25 for both thepositive and negative directions. This will not work for all of the ply drops, but since it isthe most common for this model, it will be used as the default. The other drops will beindividually modified later. The window should appear as shown.
Select OK. The grid panel definition is completed.
Select the Grid icon. The Grid Definition window appears. The computed cellsshould appear in the display as well. Keep in mind the cell names may be different basedon the order the reference elements were selected in. This shouldn’t matter.
First, the cells that will be a common thickness will be merged together to simplify thepanel definition. Keep in mind this is typically not recommended. Leaving the cells intheir default definition will yield more robustness to the design.
Open the file from your area. It should appear as shown.
This is the format for using the stacking sequence option rather than the thickness law. Inthis case, the full stacking sequence definition was defined in CATIA so the spreadsheetmay not really be necessary. However, the spreadsheet could be used to make changes inthe future.
Close the spreadsheet. You should be back to the Grid Definition window in CATIA.
Select the Virtual Stacking icon and select Grid.1 from the tree. The VirtualStacking Management window appears.
Since the stacking sequences were already defined for the cells, it is not necessary torearrange the rows in this window. If any changes were needed, they could be madethough.
Select OK. Now you are ready to create the plies.
Select the Plies From Virtual Stacking icon. The Plies Creation windowappears.
Select the Minimum Crossing & Weight Savings algorithm and the Backslash patternand select OK. The plies are created.
Hide the Grid.1 and Grid Virtual Stacking.1 in the tree. The plies should appear asshown.
Most of the drop offs are correct, but a few need to be modified to have the correctstaggering. Fortunately, the original grid panel definition can be modified and the plies willautomatically update.
Double select on Grid Panel.1 from the tree. The Panel Definition window appears.
Select the structural group and select Parallel.7 in the window. It should highlight asshown in the display.
This curve should have a drop off staggering of 0.375 in the negative X direction instead of0.25. This will be fixed now.
Select the Edit button in the Structural elements area. The Staggering Definitionwindow appears for the curve.
Turn off the Same values as Side +1 option and modify the Step for the Slope for Side -1 to be 0.375. You can either delete the formula link or just modify it to add 0.125 inchesfor the correct total.
Select OK. The plies are automatically updated.
Modify the Step for Parallel.6 to be 0.375 in both directions. The ply should update asshown.
Select OK. The final ply manipulation will require a new grid ramp support.
This section will discuss creating plies from an existing solid model using the slicingmethod. This method is helpful for parts that have a very specific exterior profile.
Slicing Group
This option allows you to slice a solid to define the shape of each of the plies before theyare created. With this option, you must first create a solid or IML surface definition foryour part.
Open the COMP - Slicing document. It should appear as shown.
Notice the mid surface of the part will be the support for the ply generation. In this case,you will actually have 2 sets of plies, one on each side of the mid surface. This is notalways the case, but makes sense for this part. A solid has been generated for each side ofthe part as well. The separate solids will be necessary for the slicing ply generation. Thereis also a zone for each side as well. The zones have been defined with enough plies in thethickness law to cover the thickness of each side of the part.
The plies will now be generated using the slicing method.
Curve degree Specifies the number of points that are used to definethe shape of the slicing along drop offs. This behavesin the same manner as transition zones. By default aline will be drawn from one side of the drop off profileto the other to create the contour. If it should be acurve rather than a straight line, then the curve degreecan be increased to include more points along the dropoff.
Exact Specifies a more exact algorithm will be used
Reduce micro edges Specifies small edges will be ignored for simplification
Force simplified... Forces a simplified computation process
Select the Top Side solid from the specification tree and turn on the Thickness Lawoption.
Select the Exact option and select OK. The slicing is created as shown.
The slicing should appear as shown in the specification tree as well. Notice the geometricallevels are based on the thickness of the plies specified in the material properties of thezones.
Once a slicing has been created, plies can be created based on the slicing curves. This willbe done next.
The orientations of the plies may need to be modified since a simple thickness law was usedfor the zone definition. This could be done in the Stacking Management or by exporting theply table to a spreadsheet, modifying and reimporting. The final stackup might looksomething like this using a 0/45/-45/90 pattern.
Right select on the Stacking (Engineering) branch and select the Stacking option,Delete Exploded Surface. This will reduce model size when you save.
The other side will not be created at this time. Feel free to try it on your own.
Method Specifies the method for distributing points over the ply area
Settings Specifies the number of points to be analyzed over the ply during theoptimization
Select Shearing angle - Weighted in the window, then right select on it. The contextualmenu will appear as shown.
This is how you can edit the various options for the optimization.
Right select under the Settings column and select Edit. The Optimization Settingswindow appears. This would allow you to modify the number of points to be included inthe optimization.
Select Cancel.
Select OK. The optimization is run. You may get a Diagnostic List window which youmay close.
Notice 50 locations were analyzed for producibility. The location yielding the lowestmaximum shearing angle was selected.
Select the Results tab and turn on the Statistics option. The Producibility Statisticswindow appears. Note, the values may differ if you aren’t using CFM Optimized Energy.
Notice the maximum shearing angle for the weighted computation is 24.1 degrees.
The values next to the other locations in the display correspond to what the maximumshearing angle for the weighted computation would be if the seed point were positioned ateach location.
Close the Producibility Statistics window.
Select Preview. The producibility should appear as shown.
Feel free to select any of the other locations and preview their results.
Select Cancel when you are done. The producibility will be computed and optimized forall plies now.
Material roll Flat patterns are positioned on the flattening plane accordingto the fiber directions of the ply and the axis of the plane
Unfold assembly Flat patterns are positioned according to the 3D positioning ofthe ply
Check material... Performs a material width analysis to be sure the ply will fit on thespecified material. If any ply ever fails this analysis, a mask willappear on the features in the tree as shown. In this case Ply.1 isfailing the material width check.
Create Flatten... Specifies the flat pattern will be created as a sketch rather than awireframe curve
Rosette Size Specifies the rosette size in the flat pattern
Smoothing Allows the flat patterns to be smoothed for optimization
Select the Sequence.1 to define the ply to flatten. Select the Flattening Plane fromGeometrical Set.1 and select the point from the Flattening Points geometrical set.
Select the same Flattening Plane again and select rectangular pattern in the FlatteningPoints geometrical set to define the Location Point for the operation. The Flatteningwindow should appear as shown.
Notice there are 9 plies selected and 9 point locations as well. Selecting a pattern willautomatically assign the plies or cut pieces to each point in the pattern.
Select the Multi Selection icon for the Location Point option in the window. TheLocation Points window appears.
Notice all of the plies are listed and each ply was assigned a location point. You canmanually specify which ply is assigned to which point from this window if you wanted to.
Select the Unfold assembly option. Set the Continuity to Threshold and the Tangencythreshold to 10, turn on the Curvature threshold and select OK. The plies are positionedin a more uniform manner this time. The plies were also smoothed in tangency.
Notice the categories under the Flatten Body allow you to organize the contents of theflattening. This is important when it comes to exporting the flat patterns. This will bediscussed in more detail in the Exporting section.