I.1.5 Composite methods

The DataBase Class provides one method that returns a ClaDb object corresponding to the materials, plies and Laminates stored in the DataBase. This method is called “getClaDb” and has no argument. The units associated to this ClaDb object are the default units as defined in Table II.1.4. If the finite element model is defined in another unit system, it is the responsibility of the user to define correctly the units of the ClaDb database and of all its entities using the method “setUnitsAllEntities” of ClaDb class. (See section II.2.4.)

Another method corresponding to the calculation of Results related to laminate load response has been added. This method called “calcFiniteElementResponse” has the same arguments as the corresponding method defined in the “ClaLam” class. The method and the meaning of its arguments are described in section II.4.8. The method defined in “DataBase” class differs from the one defined in “ClaLam” class by the fact that the algorithm tries to retrieve the Laminate corresponding to the element to which Result values are attached. The information is found in the DataBase object. More precisely, The algorithm performs as follows:

• The property ID or laminate ID corresponding to the element is identified. Then, the algorithm tries to retrieve a laminate with the same ID from the ClaDb argument.
• If a laminate object has been identified and extracted, the algorithm performs the same operations has for the method described in section II.4.8.
• Otherwise, no Result values are produced for the current key and one tries the next one.

Similarly, one defined the method “calcFiniteElementCriteria” which has exactly the same arguments and outputs as the corresponding method of “ClaLam” class described in section II.4.8. The difference between the two methods resides in the fact that the method in DataBase class retrieves the ClaLam object corresponding to the element to which the tensorial values are attached.

Finally, a third method allows to retrieve laminate engineering properties in the format of Result objects. The method “calcFemLamProperties” has three arguments:

1.

A ClaDb object which is used for the calculations of the different laminate properties.

2.

A ResKeyList object that corresponds to the finite element entities for which values shall be inserted in Result object. Note that the produced Result object are non layered. (Only the ElemId and NodeId of the ResKeyList keys matter.)

3.

A Hash with String keys and values corresponding to the requests. The key corresponds to the name by which the returned Result shall be referred. The value corresponds to the laminate engineering property that is requested. Presently, possible values of this parameter are: “E_f_xx”, “E_f_yy”, “E_k0_xx”, “E_k0_yy”, “E_xx”, “E_yy”, “G_f_xy”, “G_k0_xy”, “G_xy”, “nu_f_xy”, “nu_f_yx”, “nu_k0_xy”, “nu_k0_yx”, “nu_xy”, “nu_yx”, “thickness”, “surfacicMass”, “averageDensity”.

The method returns a Hash with String keys and Result values.

An example of use of this method follows:

For the different “finite element” methods listed above, the units considered for the returned “Result” objects are the units of the “ClaDb” object argument. This characteristic differs from the behavior of the corresponding methods in “ClaLam” class.