Relationship between shell mesh and reference plane

The shell offset displaces the laminate reference plane from the shell mesh.

Offsetting the laminate midplane from the reference plane is not the same as specifying a shell offset: shell offset is defined in the preprocessor and offsets, in the element normal direction, the element’s nodes from the reference plane. It is possible to specify a shell offset, and at the same time offset the laminate midplane from the reference plane.

Laminates with zero shell offset (1)
Laminates with nonzero shell offset (2)
	Midplane reference plane	User specified reference plane

The plus sign,, indicates the mesh element surface, the plane of nodes.

Defining the shell offset

The shell offset is defined in the Mesh Associated Data dialog box for the following solvers:

• Simcenter Nastran

• MSC Nastran

• LS-DYNA

• Simcenter Samcef

• Simcenter 3D Multiphysics

For ANSYS and Abaqus, the offset is defined in the Solver Properties group of the Laminate Modeler dialog box.

How do I

Define a reference plane location

Specify a user-defined failure theory

Learn more

Defining laminate properties

Defining plies and a stacking sequence

Validating laminate properties and strength

Advanced post processing of laminate results

Predefined laminate physical property (Simcenter Samcef)

Look up more details

Stacking recipe

Reference plane location

Symmetric and balanced laminate

Predefined Laminate Physical Property dialog box (Simcenter Samcef)

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

Bulk Entry Descriptions

Simcenter 3D tutorials

Browse Simcenter 3D help by product area

Related Topics

Laminates failure analysis

Relationship between shell mesh and reference plane, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

© 2020 Siemens

window.mainLanguage="en_US"

window.delivId=""

window.projectId=""

MathJax.Hub.Config({ TeX: { extensions: ["autoload-all.js"] }, tex2jax: { displayMath: [ ] }, "SVG": { scale: 125 } });