Fiber orientation

Use the Fiber Orientation command to display the ply fiber orientations on 2D and 3D elements for both zone-based and ply-based processes. You can filter and select plies to display the fiber orientation on their corresponding 2D or 3D elements. You can display:

• The fiber primary direction

• The fiber secondary direction

• The stacking direction (only for 3D elements)

• The fiber primary and secondary directions using the shear display options that are defined for the global layup (for 2D elements, and the 3D elements created by inflation)

The following example displays:

• The fiber primary orientation on the 2D mesh (1).

• The fiber primary orientation and the stacking direction on the ply that is located on the top layer of the solid elements (2).

(1) 2D display	(2) 3D display

Draped ply fiber and material orientation

Draped ply fiber orientation can be mapped to the material orientation of elements that are referenced by a laminate physical property. The laminate physical property must be defined with an Inherited from layup stacking recipe.

Element forces, also known as shell stress resultants, are computed in element coordinate systems, unless material orientations are defined. These element coordinate systems may point in completely different directions. Setting the material orientation is always required for analyzing element forces, and may be required for analyzing ply stresses and strains from the element forces.

For example, if you wish to recover element forces to compute orthotropic honeycomb core transverse shear stresses, you must define material orientations that correspond to the core's ribbon direction.

To map draped ply fiber orientation to material orientation, you must specify which ply has the fiber orientation that you want to map. The fiber orientations of unidirectional and woven plies become the material orientation for the referenced elements.

Plies with projected fiber orientations may not be used to map material orientations. This is because, by definition, the 0° direction of a projected ply is the material orientation direction, and hence this would cause a circular reference.

Fiber orientation display options

You can control the color spectrum that is used to display of the ply fiber shear angle, using the options that are available on the Spectrum list in the Fiber Orientation Options dialog box.

• The Stoplight option displays the fiber shear angle as a function of the lock angle using green, yellow, and red colors.

• The Structural option displays the fiber shear angle as a percentage of 90° using the structural color scheme.

For the stoplight spectrum display, the ply fiber orientation is displayed using the following colors depending on the ply fiber angle value, θ:

• Green is used for angle values: 0° < θ < αy

• Yellow is used for angle values: αy < θ < αL

• Red is used for angle values: θ > αL

where αL is the lock angle and αy is a specified yellow point percentage of the lock angle.

Ply fiber orientation as function of the lock angle	Ply fiber orientation as percentage of 90°

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	A FEM or an assembly FEM file as the work part and displayed part

Display ply fiber orientation

Command Finder	Fiber Orientation

Modify display fiber orientation options

Simulation Navigator	Right-click a global layup node→Display Fiber Orientation Options

View ply fiber orientation

Simulation Navigator	Right-click one or more ply nodes→View Fiber Orientations

How do I

Define draping data for global plies

Compute draping and flat patterns

Map draped fiber orientation to material orientation

View ply fiber orientation

Change the color spectrum for the fiber orientation display

Export draping results

Learn more

List draping results

Material orientation

Ply-based workflow

Defining plies and a stacking sequence

Look up more details

Draping solvers

Fiber alignment methods

Developable and undevelopable surfaces

Draping solver feedback

Computing draped fiber orientation and flat patterns

Right-click commands for global layup nodes

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

Bulk Entry Descriptions

Simcenter 3D tutorials

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Fiber orientation, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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