Learning Forum

[Cian mc carthy]

I am quite new to the software and am trying to model a CLT wall panel as part of my thesis. it is 2.3mx2.3m and 0.94m thick. What is the best advice you could give me to model it properly? 

[peteroznewman]

I don't know what a CLT wall panel is, so you might want to describe it in detail so I and others can advise you.

[Cian mc carthy]

My apologies, a clt panel is layers of timber boards which run perpendicular to one another to make a much stiffness element. Would you be able to show me whether and where I can access a materials stiffness matrix so that I can edit it 

[peteroznewman]

Composite Materials such as unidirectional carbon fiber lamina are built up in layers where the direction changes with each layer to make a laminate plate.

ANSYS has software called ACP/Pre that provides a the ability to define the layers, but this software is fairly complex to learn.

ANSYS Shell Elements have the ability to be defined with layers and this is a much simpler way to build up a laminate plate definition.

Wood has orthotropic material properties, like unidirectional carbon fiber.  In Engineering Data, create an orthotropic elastic material for wood where the material properties are different in the X, Y and Z directions to represent along the grain and across the grain.  They you can define layers that alternate with the X axis rotated 90 degrees in each layer to build up 3, 5, or 7 layers to make a CLT panel.

Once you have defined the wood material and the layer definiton (layer thickness and material angle), Ansys will compute the correct stiffness matrix and you just need to provide loads and boundary conditions to evaluate the deformation and stress in the material.