Fiber Composite Material Analysis Features

Our standard mode is very flexible with respect to the visualization of local orientations in 3D. Use it to take a first look into your fiber-reinforced material and get an idea of the orientation distribution. 

In this mode, you can:

• Calculate the local orientation.
• Visualize local orientations either with a color overlay or with three-dimensional needles to gain a qualitative understanding of the fiber orientation inside your sample or component.
• Investigate the global orientation distribution in 3D as a heatmap on an equatorial, sphere, or polar plot.

Use planar projection mode for planar parts in which the orientation changes over thickness. It is the mode of choice for injection-molded short fiber-reinforced materials, but also for long fiber compression-molded parts where different flow conditions lead to skin-core effects resulting in different orientation states over thickness.

In this mode, you can:

• Visualize the planar orientation distribution on an RGB color wheel specifying a unique orientation within the analysis plane.
• Derive global orientation histograms projected to the analysis plane.
• Plot 3D orientation tensor components and fiber volume fraction over thickness perpendicular to the analysis plane.

Use mesh mode to generate input data for mechanical or thermal simulations or to validate process simulations.

In this mode, you can:

• Evaluate the orientation tensor, including the corresponding eigenvalues and eigenvectors, the fiber volume fraction, and the matrix porosity* for each mesh cell.
• Visualize fiber volume fraction and orientation tensors and their principal orientations in 2D or 3D.
• Export results as .csv files for the use in 3rd party finite element analysis (FEA) software.
• Create simple regular volume meshes. Complex shaped volume meshes can either be imported (Patran, Nastran, Abaqus, Magma) or generated using the Volume Meshing Module.
• Extrude shell meshes with one click and set the numbers of cells in thickness direction of the structure.

*Porosity/Inclusion Analysis Module required

Planar Mesh Mode
 

Use planar mesh mode for sheet-like structures with almost planar orientation distributions (e.g., most composites manufactured by compression molding), especially woven fabrics.

In this mode, you can:

• Derive local planar histograms for each mesh cell.
• Evaluate main directions of the locals histograms and the deviation angles in cases where the orientation tensor does not provide meaningful information, which is useful for woven fabrics.
• Compute orientation tensors, fiber volume fraction, and matrix porosity.*

Use reference orientation mode for materials with unidirectional orientation distributions, like pultruded materials, 3D-printed fiber material in certain regions, or natural material, like wood.

In this mode, you can:

• Evaluate the deviation between the local orientation and a global reference orientation and visualize it via color coding.
• Plot a global deviation angle histogram.