Meshing of composite laminate with protruding wedge

[jssnel]

Dear fellow Abaqus users,

I recently started working with Abaqus, and therefore my knowledge of the program and its possibilities are limited. Any help and/or tips are very much appreciated!

My goal is to simulate the response of a composite laminate (46-layer) to a three-point bending test. The laminate contains a protruding wedge, see pictures. At the moment the challenge lies in meshing the part. Due to the curved area, the seed part function does not give a smooth mesh. I have also tried "seed edges", but every time certain layers (layers change as a function of seed sizing) cannot be meshed. I also know that there is the option of bottom-up meshing, but how to apply/approach this is not very clear to me.

If anybody can give me some tips on how to continue, or what the best way is to mesh geometries like these, I would be a very happy man! Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards, Jeromy

Another picture:

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...4e5c1e51&file=Composite_protruding_wedge1.jpg

 

[rstupplebeen]

I think you are on the right track with swept meshing. You may need to partition the layers to have the bump separate. Also, make sure the sweep direction is consistent, possibly trying through the thickness and transverse.

Likely the sectioning will be required since there will be a significant varying fiber volume in this region. Also you can model only half of the specimen due to symmetry.

I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen

http://www.optimaldevice.com

https://sites.google.com/site/robertkstupplebeen/