Element type support for laminates

Element types supported by laminate physical properties

The following table lists the 2D elements that are supported by the Laminate physical property and the 3D elements that are supported by the Solid Laminate physical property. In the ANSYS solver environment, the Solid Laminate physical property does not exist. Instead the 3D ANSYS elements point to the Laminate physical property.

Solver	2D elements	3D elements
Simcenter Nastran and MSC NastranNOTE	CQUAD4, CQUADR, CQUAD8NOTE, CTRIA3, CTRIAR, CTRIA6	CHEXA8, CHEXA20, CPENTA6, CPENTA15
Simcenter 3D MultiphysicsNOTE	Linear or Parabolic Quadrilateral Seed, Linear or Parabolic Triangle Seed	CHEXA8, CHEXA20, CPENTA6, CPENTA15****HEXA8, HEXA20, WEDGE6, WEDGE15
Abaqus	S3, S3R, S4, S4R, S4R5, S8R, S8R5, STRI3, STRI65, DS8, DS4, DS6, DS3, S4T, S4RT, S3T, S3RT	C3D8, C3D8H, C3D8R, C3D8RH, C3D8I, C3D8IH, C3D20, C3D20H, C3D20R, C3D20RH, SC6R, SC8R
ANSYSNOTE	SHELL91, SHELL99, SHELL131NOTE, SHELL132NOTE, SHELL181, SHELL281	SOLID185, SOLID186, SOLID191, SOLSH190
LS-DYNA	ELEMENT_SHELL	ELEMENT_TSHELL
Simcenter Samcef	T28, T29, T155, T156, T57, T58, T53	T8, T46, T153, T154, T198, T199
T34, T35, T223, T224	T39, T105

Element types supported by global layup

The following table lists the 2D elements that are supported by global layups. You cannot assign global layups directly to 3D meshes.

Solver	2D elements
Simcenter Nastran and MSC NastranNOTE	CQUAD4, CQUADR, CQUAD8NOTE, CTRIA3, CTRIAR, CTRIA6
Simcenter 3D MultiphysicsNOTE	Linear or Parabolic Quadrilateral Seed, Linear or Parabolic Triangle Seed
Abaqus	S3, S3R, S4, S4R, S4R5, S8R, S8R5, STRI3, STRI65, DS8, DS4, DS6, DS3, S4T, S4RT, S3T, S3RT
ANSYSNOTE	SHELL91, SHELL99, SHELL131NOTE, SHELL132NOTE, SHELL181, SHELL281
LS-DYNA	ELEMENT_SHELL
Simcenter Samcef	T28, T29, T155, T156, T57, T58, T53
T34, T35

Element types supported for inflation

The following table lists the 2D elements for each solver environment and the corresponding 3D elements that are created by the inflation process.

Solver	2D elements	3D elements
Simcenter NastranNOTE	CTRIA3, CTRIAR, CTRIA6	CPENTA
CQUAD4, CQUADR, CQUAD8	CHEXA
Simcenter 3D MultiphysicsNOTE	Linear or Parabolic Quadrilateral Seed, Linear or Parabolic Triangle Seed****Linear or Parabolic Quadrilateral, Linear or Parabolic Triangle	CHEXA8, CHEXA20, CPENTA6, CPENTA15 HEXA8, HEXA20, WEDGE6, WEDGE15
Abaqus	S4, S4R, S4R5	C3D8
S8R, S8R5	C3D20
ANSYS	SHELL91, SHELL99, SHELL281	SOLID186
SHELL181	SOLID185
LS-DYNA	ELEMENT_SHELL	ELEMENT_TSHELL, ELEMENT_SOLIDNOTE
Simcenter Samcef	T28, T53, T57, T155	T46,T145, T153, T198
T29, T58, T156	T8, T147, T154, T199
T34	T39
T35	T105

Drop-off meshes can contain a mixture of tetrahedral, pyramid, wedge, and hexahedral elements. Abaqus and LS-DYNA do not support pyramids. In that case, pyramids are split into tetrahedral elements.

Learn more

Simcenter 3D Laminate Composites

Laminate definition methods

Managing laminates and layups

Zone-based workflow

Ply-based workflow

Look up more details

Laminate glossary

Coordinate systems for laminates

Material and ply orientation

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Pre/Post video examples

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Element type support for laminates, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

© 2020 Siemens

The Nastran laminate can be exported as:

—

PCOMP

or

PCOMPG

cards for the laminate with

MAT1

or

MAT8

material cards for each ply.

—

PSHELL

card for the laminate with

MAT2

material card.

—

PCOMPS

card with

MAT1

material card.

Results are affected by the quality of the CQUAD8 elements because their material coordinate system is defined by the orientation you define as well as by the element shape.

2D meshes are not exported to the solver.

The ANSYS laminate is exported either as real constants, or as

SECDATA

cards.

Available in thermal environment

Available in thermal environment

The Nastran laminate can be exported as:

—

PCOMP

or

PCOMPG

cards for the laminate with

MAT1

or

MAT8

material cards for each ply.

—

PSHELL

card for the laminate with

MAT2

material card.

Results are affected by the quality of the CQUAD8 elements because their material coordinate system is defined by the orientation you define as well as by the element shape.

2D meshes are not exported to Simcenter Nastran and the thermal solver.

The ANSYS laminate is exported either as real constants, or as

SECDATA

cards.

Available in thermal environment

Available in thermal environment

The Nastran laminate is exported as

PCOMPS

card with

MAT1

material card.

2D meshes are not exported to the solver.

Ply drop-offs

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