Creating solid composite layups

This section describes how to create a solid composite layup.

In most cases, you should model a composite solid as a shell or continuum shell composite layup. However, you should use a solid composite layup for the following cases:

  • When the transverse shear effects are predominant.

  • When you cannot ignore the normal stress.

  • When you require accurate interlaminar stresses, such as near localized regions of complex loading or geometry.

Solid composite layups are expected to have a single element through their thickness, and that single element contains multiple plies that are defined in the ply table. If the region to which you assign your solid composite layup contains multiple elements, each element will contain the plies defined in the ply table, and the analysis results will not be as expected.


In this section:

Creating solid composite layups
Specifying the plies of a solid composite layup
Specifying the display of selected plies of a solid composite layup