Workshop 05.

2 – Solid
Modeling with a Cut-Off Rule

Introduction to
ANSYS Composite PrepPost
Release 2020 R1

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Background
• Imagine a ply finishing away from a part’s perimeter and this first ply being covered by a
second larger ply. At end of the first ply, a small resin pocket will form as the second ply
forms a step-down.
• In the real world, this is an area with inferior structural behavior.
• In the world of solid elements, we are also left with a void beyond the perimeter of the
first ply.
• We can create degenerated hexagonal elements in the shape of a wedge to fill this void.
We call these ply drop-offs.
• The wedge elements cannot hold layered information, they are homogeneous elements
but we can assign resin properties to them to mimic resin pockets.

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Introduction
• In this workshop, we model a composite solid model with ply drop-offs
• We see how ply drop-offs and element size have an influence on the shape of the
extruded solid
• We use a Cut-off Selection Rule to control the plies’ extents as well as the Solid Model
Snap-to Geometry feature to smoothen the surface.

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Start ANSYS Workbench and Open Archive

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1. Start ANSYS Workbench and open the archive
Solid_Model_with_Cutoff_Rule_FROM_START_<Release>.wbpz
2. Save the Workbench project
3. Double click on Setup to open ACP

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

• A fabric with a thickness of 0.5 mm is already defined

• Two materials, Epoxy_Carbon_UD_230GPa_Prepreg and Resin_Polylite_413, are used.
The resin material will be used as global drop off material
• Rosette and Oriented Selection Set are already defined

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Create Plies

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1. Create a new ply group and rename it as Ply Group.1
2. Create 20 new layers (all 0° plies)
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

• In the next step a cut-off rule will be used to taper the plies. The cut-off rule uses a CAD
surface to taper plies where they are cut by the surface.

Cut-Off Surface as CAD geometry Tapered Plies

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Import Geometry 1. Insert two new Geometry components from the Component Systems
2. Import the cad files CUT_OFF_GEOMETRY.stp and
SNAP_TO_GEOMETRY.stp into the two new geometry cells
3. Link both Geometry to Setup of ACP (Pre)
4. Update ACP (Pre) setup and return to ACP (Pre)

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Import Geometry
1. The CAD files imported at the previous step are loaded in ACP (Pre) in CAD Geometries
2. Right click on Virtual Geometries to create a new CAD virtual geometry

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Create a new Cut-Off Rule

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1. Create a new Cut-Off rule (Right Mouse button on Selection Rules → Create Cutoff Rule)
2. Double click on the Cut-Off rule to edit its properties
3. Select the imported CAD geometry, Analysis Ply Cutoff, and Ply Tapering in the property
window
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Apply Cut-Off Rule

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1. In the properties of the modeling ply, switch to the rules tab
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2. Add Cut-Off rule by selecting the rule in the rule column
3. Click apply and update the model to see the ply tapering in the section cut
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Create a new Ply

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1. Create two new plies (0° plies) within the existing ply group. The new plies will be placed
on top of the tapered layers

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Create a Solid Model

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1. Create a new Solid Model (Right Mouse button on Solid Models → Create Solid Model)
2. Select All Elements in element sets and extrusion method Analysis Ply Wise
3. Select to use homogeneous drop-off elements and Resin_Polylite_413 as drop-off
material
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Import Geometry 1. Create a new CAD virtual geometry

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule
Although the solid model is not bad, ANSYS Composite PrepPost allows creating a
smoother outer surface of the solid model. With the snap-to-geometry feature, the
1. Use Snap-to-Geometry Feature extruded surface is smoothed using a CAD surface and waviness coming from
numerical roundoff is removed. Check the next slide for a comparison.

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1. In the properties of the solid model switch to tab Snap to Geometry
2. Create a new item SnapToGeometry
3. Select the imported CAD surface for the snap to geometry feature and the oriented
selection set of the modeling plies
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

• Updating the model will show a smoother outer surface of the solid composite model

Solid Model Extrusion without Snap Solid Model Extrusion using

to Geometry Feature Snap to Geometry Feature
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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

• The ply drop off elements

will use the homogenous
resin material

Ply drop off areas

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5.2 Solid Modeling with Cut-off Rule

Workshop Summary

• The Cut-off Selection Rule taper the plies at the intersection with a CAD surface
• Resin material is used for ply drop off elements during solid extrusion
• The Snap-to Geometry feature removes the artificial waviness on the tapered solid
model. This works by altering the height of all the elements through thickness to achieve
an even distribution

18 © 2019 ANSYS, Inc.