The degradation factor fields are defined by means of a Field Definition object. If Degradation Factor has been used to define one of the materials in Engineering Data for the current composite analysis, you can select it from the drop-down menu under Field Variable Name, as shown in the Figure below. The scope of applicability of this Field Definition is set under Scope Entities to a combination of Element Sets, Oriented Selection Sets and Modeling Plies. The degradation factors are interpolated from the selected Look-up Table Column upon update of the ACP system: for shell elements the field state values are evaluated at the element centroid taking into account the actual ply offsets if Include Shell Offset is activated; for solid elements the actual ply position is always considered and this behavior cannot be changed.
All downstream analysis systems will make use of the information provided for the Degradation Factor in the Field Definition object.
