Help in honeycomb composite modeling

Hello,

 

my name is Yanni Eleftheriadis and I am new to Optistruct and Hypermesh. I am  currently working on a project on Optistruct that has to do with modeling a composite material and I would appreciate any advise on how to model the composite material with the following details:

 

My compound should be made from three plies of carbon fiber, one ply of honeycomb material and four plies of carbon fiber. What I have to start with is a shell geometry without any thickness. The honeycomb material has a given spec of MAT9 and the carbon fiber a spec of MAT8.

 

1) I have tried to form a laminate using Hyperlaminate but I can not get MAT9 inside the panel to build the laminate.

2) I checked for MAT9 and I found that I can only use it in 3d elements which I do not have since my geometry is a shell (Can I get from a shell geometry 3d elements?).

3) I tried to form a solid geometry by offsetting 2d elements from my shell but the geometry is so complex that my computer is anable to resolve.

 

In order to be clear and not to confuse what I mean by shell is that my model ( car seat ) has a complex 3d geometry that has no thickness.

 

When I use a PCOMPP or PCOMPG property and create the laminate without using the Hyperlaminate panel, it looks ok and I get a visualization on the screen on how the compound should look like but I am not sure if this is the correct proccedure.

 

My question is: How can I model a honeycomb composite material with MAT9 and MAT8 composites in it when starting from a 2d geometry?

 

Can someone help me with this? I would be gratefull for any tip and advice.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Yanni Eleftheriadis