Creating a Two-Dimensional Orthotropic User Material

If you are using Abaqus for CATIA V5 to model a layup of composite materials, you must create two-dimensional orthotropic materials using the CATIA V5 user material capability and assign them to the layers of the composite. For more information, see Creating a Layup, and Analyzing Composite Materials.

Note:  A two-dimensional orthotropic user material is a CATIA V5 user material. User materials must not be confused with the User-defined Material property available on the Nonlinear and Thermal tabbed page of the Properties dialog box. The Abaqus user-defined material is an advanced option that allows you to define your own general material response equations. For more information, see Specifying Abaqus Material Properties.

Creating a User Material: Defines a CATIA V5 user material.

This task shows you how to create a two-dimensional orthotropic user material that you can use to model a layer of a composite material.

  1. Click the User Material icon .

    The Library dialog box opens. The default .CATMaterial document is used.

    Note:  An interim dialog box will appear the first time that the material properties are loaded in an Abaqus for CATIA V5 session.

  2. Select a material family from the tabs along the top of the dialog box, then choose a material from the displayed images, and click OK.

    A user material object appears under the Materials objects set in the specification tree.

  3. To change the name of the user material object, do the following:

    1. Right-click on the material object in the specification tree, and select Properties from the menu that appears.

      The Properties dialog box appears.

    2. Click the Feature Properties tab in the Properties dialog box, and enter a new name in the Feature Name field. This name will be used in the specification tree.

  4. To change the material type, do the following:

    1. Right-click on the material object in the specification tree, and select Material object>Definition from the menu that appears.

      The Properties dialog box appears.

    2. Click the Analysis tab in the Properties dialog box.

    3. Select Orthotropic Material 2D from the drop-down menu.

    4. Enter new structural property data in each available field.

      To create a two-dimensional orthotropic material that you can use to model a layup of composite materials in Abaqus for CATIA V5, you must provide the following data:
      Longitudinal Young's Modulus
      Transverse Young's Modulus
      Poisson's Ratio in XY Plane
      Shear Modulus in XY Plane
      Shear Modulus in XZ Plane
      Shear Modulus in YZ Plane
      Density
      Longitudinal Thermal Expansion
      Transverse Thermal Expansion

      Note:  Data that you enter on the Nonlinear and Thermal page are ignored by a two-dimensional orthotropic user material. As a result, you cannot define the thermal conductivity of a two-dimensional orthotropic user material.

      See Defining orthotropic elasticity by specifying the engineering constants in Linear elastic behavior in the Abaqus Materials Guide for more information.

  5. Click OK in the Properties dialog box.