Nonintrusive coupling of 3D and 2D laminated composite models based on finite element 3D recovery

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nonintrusive coupling method that integrates 3D and 2D finite element models for laminated composites, enabling accurate simulation of large structures with local 3D detail without modifying existing software.

Contribution

A novel nonintrusive coupling technique that combines global plate models with localized 3D models using stress and displacement distributions based on Saint-Venant problems.

Findings

Fast convergence of the hybrid model.

High accuracy close to full 3D models.

Compatible with commercial finite element software.

Abstract

In order to simulate the mechanical behavior of large structures assembled from thin composite panels, we propose a coupling technique which substitutes local 3D models for the global plate model in the critical zones where plate modeling is inadequate. The transition from 3D to 2D is based on stress and displacement distributions associated with Saint-Venant problems which are precalculated automatically for a simple 3D cell. The hybrid plate/3D model is obtained after convergence of a series of iterations between a global plate model of the structure and localized 3D models of the critical zones. This technique is nonintrusive because the global calculations can be carried out using commercial software. Evaluation tests show that convergence is fast and that the resulting hybrid model is very close to a full 3D model.