Define the laminate to be used in the plate analysis.
The Laminate tab is similar to the New Laminate window described previously (Create a New Laminate). From the Laminate tab, the laminate can be defined in either of two ways:
- Use an Existing Laminate - Any laminate stored in the material database can be loaded into the Laminate tab. To view the list of available laminates in the database, click the Open button under the Laminate tab. Select any laminate from the list by double-clicking the name of the desired laminate, which prompts Helius Composite to read the appropriate material data file and display the laminate's data. This data includes the material type, thickness, and fiber orientation angle for each material ply that makes up the laminate. You can also view a model of the laminate in the ply stack visualization window to verify the laminate is built correctly.
- Create a new Laminate - Instead of using a laminate stored in the material database, you can build a new laminate in the Laminate tab using the same procedure described in before (Create a New Laminate). After defining the material and geometric data for the new laminate, give the laminate a name (in the Laminate Name box). Click Save to store the new laminate in the material database before attempting to perform any analysis on the laminate. (Note, the Lamina drop-down menu will include all of the laminae available in the material database when the Plate Analysis window was opened.
