Composite Laminate under Three-Point Bending

Subject a composite laminate with a layup [0/90/0/90/0/90/0] to three point bending with support span = 30 mm by applying a uniform load of P = 10 N/mm at the center. Find the longitudinal stress SX and displacement UY at point B and transverse shear stress TXY at point C.

File Name

Open drive letter:\Users\Public\Public Documents\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS version\samples\Simulation Examples\Verification\NAFEMS_IC30.SLDPRT.

Study Type

Static

Mesh Type

Shell mesh

Shell Parameters

Symmetric 7-layered composite laminate with all plies made of same material. See figure for thickness and orientation of each ply.

Material Properties

Linear elastic orthotropic with:

  • Elastic moduli: Ex = 100 GPa, Ey = 5 GPa, Ez = 5 GPa
  • Poisson's ratios: νxy = 0.4, νyz = 0.3, νxz = 0.3
  • Shear Moduli: Gxy = 3 GPa, Gyz = 2 GPa, Gxz = 2 GPa
The x direction is along the material fiber direction, the y direction is along the transverse direction in plane, and the z direction is out-of-plane. These directions are different from the global X, Y, and Z directions in the figure.

Modeling Hints

Due to symmetry, only a quarter of the laminate is modeled.

Results

Component NAFEMS SOLIDWORKS Simulation
UY displacement at B (mm) -1.06 -1.069
SX stress at B (bottom face of first ply) in MPa 684 681
TXY stress at C (bottom face of second ply) in MPa 4.1 5.01
UY, SX, and TXY are obtained at the annotated location in the model that reads probe results here.

Reference

NAFEMS, Publication R0031/2, "Composite Benchmarks", February 1995.