Objective: Import and map "as-manufactured" fiber directions to Plies for Analysis.
Fibers in composite plies on complex contour tooling often deviate from the FEM material axis during manufacturing. HyperX can account for this deviation by importing (from a simulation or any other source) and mapping as-manufactured fiber directions to each Element in each Ply.
The fiber directions are analyzed via a Discrete Field that contains the fiber directions (as a vector) for each element. There are two routes for generating and assigning the Discrete Fields. The first option is to import and assign Discrete Fields directly to the Plies. The second option is to import and assign CAD Curves that represent the fiber paths and then map those Curves to the Elements in the Plies to create Discrete Fields.
Plies must already exist on the Structure in order to map as-manufactured fiber directions. They can be generated automatically with Sequencing, created manually, or imported.
Step 1: Import Discrete Fields
Discrete Fields can be created by importing fiber directions from a variety of formats, including formats specific to fiber path generation software as well as a generic CSV format. See Import Discrete Fields. The Discrete Fields must use an Element entity type and a vector data type in order to be assigned to Plies.
Step 2: Assign to Plies
Discrete Fields are assigned to Plies either on an individual basis on the Ply Definition Form, or in bulk on the Ply Manager.
Individual assignment can be done on the Advanced tab of the Ply Definition Form.
Bulk assignment can be done using the mapping utility on the Ply Manager.
On this mapping utility, Discrete Fields can be assigned to Plies one-by-one by double-clicking on rows in the table.
A single Discrete Field can also be assigned to multiple Plies by:
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Select multiple rows.
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Right-click and choose "Map selected plies".
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Select a Discrete Field.
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Click Apply.
The primary function of the mapping utility is to automatically map Discrete Fields to Plies based on Ply name and Discrete Field name. The "key" inputs at the bottom of the mapping form are used to input a string that precedes the ID of the Ply and the Discrete Field. For example, if "ply." is input as the key, the utility will extract an ID of 1 from the Discrete Field name "Fiber directions_ply.1". This is done for both the Ply and Discrete Field name, and Discrete Fields are automatically assigned to Plies with a matching ID.
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Define the Ply key (left).
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Define the Discrete Field key (right).
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Click the auto-map button.
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Select the Discrete Fields to be auto-mapped.
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Click Apply.
Once the auto-mapping is run, the results can be modified as needed by the user using the techniques described above. Additionally, the entire mapping can be exported to Excel, edited, and imported via the standard Excel editing controls at the top of the form.
Step 1: Import CAD Curves
CAD Curves for fiber directions are imported via the standard CAD import tool.
Curves can be in a single or multiple CAD files. Curves from each file will be grouped into folders in the CAD Tree, which can be useful for mapping in the subsequent setup.
Step 2: Assign to Plies
Discrete Fields are assigned to Plies either on an individual basis on the Ply Definition Form, or in bulk on the Ply Manager. Individual assignment can be done on the Discrete Field tab of the Fiber Direction section of the Ply form.
Bulk assignment can be done using the mapping utility on the Ply Manager.
There are two routes for mapping on this utility: by Folder name and by Curve name. Mapping "By Folder" is useful when the Curves for each Ply came from a separate file, thus creating separate folders on import. Otherwise, mapping "By Curve" should be used.
On the mapping utility, Folder/Curves can be assigned to Plies one-by-one by double-clicking on rows in the table.
The same Folder/Curves can also be assigned to multiple Plies by:
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Select multiple rows.
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Right-click and choose "Map selected plies".
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Select a Discrete Field.
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Click Apply.
The primary function of the mapping utility is to automatically map Folders/Curves to Plies based on Ply name and Folder/Curve name. The "key" inputs at the bottom of the mapping form are used to input a string that precedes the ID of the Ply and the Folder/Curve. For example, if "ply." is input as the key, the utility will extract an ID of 1 from the Folder/Curve name "Fiber directions_ply.1". This is done for both the Ply and Folder/Curve name, and Folders/Curves are automatically assigned to Plies with a matching ID.
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Define the Ply key (left).
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Define the Folder/Curve key (right).
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Click the auto-map button.
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Select the Folders/Curves to be auto-mapped.
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Click Apply.
Tip
Once the auto-mapping is run, the results can be modified as needed by using the techniques described above. Additionally, the entire mapping can be exported to Excel, edited, and imported via the standard Excel editing controls at the top of the form.
Step 3: Generate Discrete Fields
The final step before Analysis can be performed is to map fiber directions from the Curves to the elements in each Ply.
This can be done Ply-by-Ply on the Ply Definition form (right) or for multiple Plies on the Ply Manager (left). The mapping process automatically determines a vector per element in the Ply based on the tangent vector of the two nearest Curves.
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Plot fiber directions per Ply, per Element. See How to View Fiber Directions on Plies.
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Interpolate fiber directions if any Elements in a Ply are missing fiber direction data. Button located on Ply Manager
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Analyze Plies to get updated margins corresponding to as-manufactured fiber directions. See How to Analyze Plies.