Define Nastran 2D element material orientation

This topic describes how to use Mesh Associated Data to define material orientation for all 2D elements in a mesh.

1. Display the FEM.

2. In the Simulation Navigator, expand the mesh collector that contains your 2D mesh.

3. Right-click the mesh and choose Edit Mesh Associated Data.

4. In the Mesh Associated Data dialog box, from the Material Orientation Method list, select the desired method for defining the orientation. MCID Orientation Angle Tangent Curve Vector Regardless of the method you choose, when you define the material orientation vector for shell elements, you rotate only the X and Y axes in the plane of the element. The Z-axis is fixed and is normal to the element. The orthogonality of X, Y, and Z means you only need to orient the X-axis. The right-hand rule applies.

5. In the Preview group, select the Preview check box to view the material coordinate system for each element in the graphics window.

6. Click OK to finish defining the material orientation.

MCID method

From the MCID Definition list, select the desired method for defining the material coordinate system.

• User Defined — Select or define a coordinate system using the standard coordinate system definition tools. The software uses the X-axis of the selected coordinate system (depending on the option you select from the MCID Type list) as the material orientation vector. The software projects that vector onto the plane of the selected element to determine the material orientation.

• Inherited from Layup — Specifies that the MCID is defined under the Layups node in the Simulation Navigator. Note: This option is only applicable when you are using the ply-based process to define your laminate. See Laminate definition methods for more information.

Orientation Angle method

In the Orientation Angle box, enter the angle between the first edge of the element and the desired X-axis of the material coordinate system you are defining.

Tangent Curve method

1. In the graphics window, select a curve or edge on your geometry. For each element, the software finds the closest point on the selected curve or edge to the element centroid and sets the primary direction as tangent to that geometry.In the following example, the material orientation represented by the yellow arrows was defined by selecting the edge . Note: The arrows shown in the picture are displayed using the Element Material Orientation command.

2. (Optional) Enter an angle in the Rotation Angle box to rotate the initial direction of the material orientation vector. Continuing with the previous example, an angle of 45 degrees results in the following vector.

Vector method

1. Define the material orientation vector using one of these methods:Select an edge in the geometry to infer a vector.Use the vector tools to define the vector.**Vector inferred from edge (1)**Vector specified as X direction

2. (Optional) Click Reverse Direction to reverse the direction of the material orientation vector.

3. (Optional) Enter an angle in the Rotation Angle box to rotate the initial direction of the material orientation vector.

About Element Associated Data

You can also define a different material orientation for individual 2D elements within a mesh using Element Associated Data. For steps, see Add element-associated data.

By default, any material orientations defined as Element Associated Data override any material orientation defined as Mesh Associated Data regardless of the method by which they are defined. You can specify that the software ignores Element Associated Data material orientations by clearing the Use Element Associated Data check box on the Mesh Associated Data dialog box.

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