Materials

This example demonstrates how to create the different type of materials, import, or export them. It only shows the PyACP part of the setup. For a complete composite analysis, see PyMAPDL workflow.

ACP distinguishes between four types of material:

• Raw Material that defines the mechanical properties of the material.

• Fabric is where a material can be associated with a set thickness.

• Stackup is used to combine fabrics into a non-crimp fabric, such as a [0 45 90] combination.

• Sublaminate is used to group fabrics and stackups for frequently used lay-ups.

Fabrics, Stackups and Sublaminates can be used to create plies. It is recommended to look a the Ansys help for more information on the different types of materials.

Import the standard library and third-party dependencies.

import pathlib
import tempfile

Import the PyACP dependencies.

from ansys.acp.core import FabricWithAngle, Lamina, PlyType, SymmetryType, launch_acp
from ansys.acp.core.extras import ExampleKeys, get_example_file
from ansys.acp.core.material_property_sets import (
    ConstantEngineeringConstants,
    ConstantStrainLimits,
    ConstantStressLimits,
)

Start ACP and load the model

%% Get the example file from the server.

tempdir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
WORKING_DIR = pathlib.Path(tempdir.name)
input_file = get_example_file(ExampleKeys.BASIC_FLAT_PLATE_DAT, WORKING_DIR)

Launch the PyACP server and connect to it.

acp = launch_acp()

Import the model from the input file.

model = acp.import_model(input_file, format="ansys:dat")

Create a Material

%% Create property sets elastic constants, strain and stress limits.

engineering_constants_ud = ConstantEngineeringConstants.from_orthotropic_constants(
    E1=5e10, E2=1e10, E3=1e10, nu12=0.28, nu13=0.28, nu23=0.3, G12=5e9, G23=4e9, G31=4e9
)

strain_limit_tension = 0.01
strain_limit_compression = 0.008
strain_limit_shear = 0.012
strain_limits = ConstantStrainLimits.from_orthotropic_constants(
    eXc=strain_limit_compression,
    eYc=strain_limit_compression,
    eZc=strain_limit_compression,
    eXt=strain_limit_tension,
    eYt=strain_limit_tension,
    eZt=strain_limit_tension,
    eSxy=strain_limit_shear,
    eSyz=strain_limit_shear,
    eSxz=strain_limit_shear,
)

stress_limits = ConstantStressLimits.from_orthotropic_constants(
    Xt=7.8e8,
    Yt=3.1e7,
    Zt=3.1e7,
    Xc=-4.8e8,
    Yc=-1e8,
    Zc=-1e8,
    Sxy=3.5e7,
    Syz=2.5e7,
    Sxz=3.5e7,
)

Create a uni-directional (UD) material

ud_material = model.create_material(
    name="E-Glass UD",
    ply_type=PlyType.REGULAR,
    engineering_constants=engineering_constants_ud,
    strain_limits=strain_limits,
    stress_limits=stress_limits,
)

Create a Fabric

Create a fabric with a thickness of 0.2 mmm. A material can be used for multiple fabrics.

ud_fabric_02mm = model.create_fabric(
    name="E-Glass UD 0.2mm", material=ud_material, thickness=0.0002
)
ud_fabric_03mm = model.create_fabric(
    name="E-Glass UD 0.3mm", material=ud_material, thickness=0.0003
)

Create a Stackup

Create a non-crimped fabric. In that case a biax.

biax_glass_ud = model.create_stackup(
    name="Biax E-Glass UD [-45, 45]",
    fabrics=(
        FabricWithAngle(ud_fabric_02mm, -45),
        FabricWithAngle(ud_fabric_02mm, 45),
    ),
)

Create a Sub-Laminate

A Sublaminate is a group of fabrics and stackups which eases the modeling if the same sequence of materials is used multiple times. The final material sequence of this Sublaminate is [E-Glass -45°, E-Glass 45°, E-Glass 90°, E-Glass 45°, E-Glass -45°].

sublaminate = model.create_sublaminate(
    name="Sublaminate",
    materials=(
        Lamina(biax_glass_ud, 0),
        Lamina(ud_fabric_02mm, 90),
    ),
    symmetry=SymmetryType.ODD_SYMMETRY,
)

Import and Export Materials

Materials can be imported and exported from and to external sources. By default, materials are loaded from the CDB file when the model is loaded. An alternative is to load materials from an Engineering Data file via Model.import_materials().

engd_file_path = get_example_file(ExampleKeys.MATERIALS_XML, WORKING_DIR)
model.import_materials(matml_path=engd_file_path)
model.materials

<MutableMapping[Material] with keys ['Epoxy_Carbon_UD_230GPa_Prepreg', 'Epoxy_Carbon_Woven_230GPa_Prepreg', 'SAN_Foam_103kgm3']>

Some workflows require the materials to be exported to an XML file.

model.export_materials(path=WORKING_DIR / "exported_materials.xml")