Learning Forum

[pnoever]

Hello everyone,

 I am trying to model a tube, made of anisotropic material. No my question is, how to align the material properly in the elements. I made a geometry of half a tube, and asigned an element orientation in the Geometry acording to a cylindrical system I have defined before, here z-axis is in longitunidal direction and y in circumferencial. So I would expect the element local coordinates system to be aligned acording to the cylindrical coordinate system. And actually the Element triads show exactly that. Everything fine. But I am still in doubt, does this also mean, that the directions of material in each element is aligned to the elemen local coordinate system? so rotating along the tube circumference?

Hopefully I have explained the problem understandable. Appreciate any comment or suggestion.

Greetings :)

[peteroznewman]

Yes, you have correctly defined the element coordinates in a cylindrical system for your tube and the Y axis properties will be tangential around the tube.

When you plot stress, you should also use the cylindrical coordinate system to plot hoop stress tangential around the tube by plotting a Normal Stress in the Y axis of the cylindrical coordinate system.

[pnoever]

Hi Peter,
great. Thanks for that confirmation :)