PCOMP (Layered Composite Element Property)

Description

The PCOMP entry defines the properties of an n-ply composite material laminate.

Format

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
PCOMP	PID	Z0		SB	FT	TREF		LAM
	MID1	T1	THETA1		MID2	T2	THETA2
	MID3	T3	THETA3		-etc.-

Example

PCOMP	190	-0.256		2500.0	TSAI
	200	0.065	0.0		210	0.04	45.0
	220	0.03	60.0

Field	Definition	Type	Default
PID	Property identification number.	Integer > 0	Required
Z0	Distance from the reference plane to the bottom surface.	Real	-1/2 element thickness
SB	Allowable shear stress of the bonding material (allowable interlaminar shear stress). The SB parameter is required if failure index is desired.	Real > 0.0
FT	Failure theory. The following theories are allowed; if blank, no failure calculation is performed. HILL for the Hill theory HOFF for the Hoffman theory TSAI for the Tsai-Wu theory STRESS for the maximum stress theory STRAIN for the maximum strain theory MCT for Multicontinuum theory	Character or blank
TREF	Reference temperature. See Remark 3.	Real	0.0
LAM	Laminate option. If LAM = SYM, only plies on one side of the element centerline are specified. The plies are numbered starting with 1 for the bottom layer. If an odd number of plies is desired with LAM = SYM then the center ply thickness (Ti) should be half the actual thickness.	Character or blank	If blank, all plies must be specified
MIDi	Material ID of the various plies. The plies are identified by serially numbering them from 1 at the bottom layer. The MID’s must refer to MAT1 or MAT8 Bulk Data entries. See Remark 6.	Integer > 0	MID1 required; see Remark 1
Ti	Thicknesses of various plies. See Remark 1.	Real or blank	T1 required
THETAi	Orientation angle of the longitudinal direction of each ply with the material axis of the element. (If the material angle on the element connection entry is 0.0, the material axis and side 1-2 of the element coincide.) The plies are numbered serially starting with 1 at the bottom layer. The bottom layer is defined as the surface with the largest minus Z value in the element coordinate system.	Real or blank	0.0

Remarks

1. The default for MID2, …, MIDn is the last defined MIDi. In the example above, MID1 is the default for MID2, MID3, and MID4. The same logic applies to Ti.
2. At least one of the four values (MIDi, Ti, THETAi) must be present for a ply to exist. The minimum number of plies is one.
3. TREF given on the PCOMP entry will be used for all plies of the element; it will override values supplied on material entries for individual plies. If the PCOMP references temperature dependent material properties, then TREF given on the PCOMP will be used as the temperature to determine material properties. TEMPERATURE Case Control commands are ignored for deriving the equivalent PSHELL and MAT1 entries used to describe the composite element.
4. The failure index for the boundary material is calculated as Failure Index = max(τ_1z , τ_1z). The Failure Index for the ply is calculated as shown in the following table.

   Theory	Failure Index	Remarks
   Hill		Orthotropic materials with equal strengths in tension and compression.
   Hoffman		Orthotropic materials under a general state of plane stress with unequal tensile and compressive strengths.
   Tsai-Wu		Orthotropic materials under a general state of plane stress with unequal tensile and compressive strengths.
   Max Stress		None
   Max Strain		None

5. The STRENGTHRATIO model parameter is used to request the output of the Tsai Strength Ratio (R) instead of Failure Index. (See the Parameters section for more information on STRENGTHRATIO.)
6. This entry may be used to define a layered shell element. The MIDi fields may only reference MAT1 or MAT8 entries.