REINF264 Element Description

For a structural reinforcing analysis, use REINF264 with standard 3D link, beam, shell and solid elements (referred to here as the base elements) to provide extra reinforcing to those elements. For a thermal reinforcing analysis, the supported base elements are thermal solids SOLID278, SOLID279, and SOLID291.

The element is suitable for simulating reinforcing fibers with arbitrary orientations. Each fiber is modeled separately as a spar that has only uniaxial stiffness (default) or conductivity. When solid base elements are used, the element can also account for bending and torsional stiffness with either square (SECCONTROL,,,1) or circular (SECCONTROL,,,2) cross sections. You can specify multiple reinforcing fibers in one REINF264 element. The nodal locations, degrees of freedom, and connectivity of the REINF264 element are identical to those of the base element.

For smeared reinforcing modeling options, use the REINF263 and REINF265 elements.

REINF264 has plasticity, stress-stiffening, creep, large-deflection, and large-strain capabilities.

For more information, see Reinforcing and Direct Element Embedding in the Structural Analysis Guide.

Table 264.1: REINF264 Geometry

3D 8-Node Solid or Solid Shell	3D 20-Node Solid
3D 4-Node Tetrahedral Solid	3D 10-Node Tetrahedral Solid
3D 4-Node Shell	3D 8-Node Shell
3D 2-Node Beam	3D 3-Node Beam
3D 2-Node Spar

Figure 264.1: REINF264 Coordinate System

REINF264 Input Data

The geometry and nodal locations for this element are shown in Table 264.1: REINF264 Geometry. The REINF264 element and its base element share the same nodes and element connectivity. Each reinforcing fiber is indicated by its intersection points (II, JJ for linear base elements, and II, JJ, KK for quadratic base elements) with the base elements.

You can easily create REINF264 elements from the selected base elements (EREINF). Section commands (SECTYPE and SECDATA) define the material ID, cross-section area, and location of reinforcing fibers. See Reinforcing and Direct Element Embedding in the Structural Analysis Guide for more information about creating REINF264 elements.

For structural analysis, REINF264 allows tension-only or compression-only reinforcing fibers. You can specify the desired fiber behavior (SECCONTROL).

The element can account for redundant base element material where the reinforcing fibers are located (SECCONTROL,,REMBASE).

The coordinate system for one reinforcing fiber is shown in Figure 264.1: REINF264 Coordinate System. The coordinate system is solely determined by intersection points II, JJ, and KK; therefore, the element coordinate system (/PSYMB,ESYS) is not relevant for this element.

For a structural analysis, REINF264 allows body-force-density element loading (BFE), as shown in these examples:

If applying body-force density to REINF264 elements, the program applies a uniform load to all members in the element. You can apply non-uniform body-force density to individual members via the mesh-independent method by loading to MESH200 elements.

Apply other structural element loading only to the base element. The temperature of the REINF264 element is identical to the temperature of the base element in a structural analysis.

For thermal reinforcing analysis, REINF264 allows heat-generation (HGEN) element loading (BFE), as shown in these examples:

You can apply an initial state to this element in either of the following ways:

A summary of the element input follows.

REINF264 Structural or Thermal Output Data

The solution output associated with the element is in two forms:

The axial stress component is illustrated in Figure 264.2: REINF264 Structural or Thermal Output.

Figure 264.2: REINF264 Structural or Thermal Output

Unlike layered solid or shell elements (such as SHELL181), REINF264 always outputs the element solution for all reinforcing layers. You can select solution items for a specific reinforcing layer (LAYER) for listing and visualization by using full graphics (/GRAPHICS,FULL). Visualization via PowerGraphics (/GRAPHICS,POWER) is not affected by the LAYER command; all reinforcing layers are displayed simultaneously. See the Basic Analysis Guide for ways to review results.

REINF264 element solution is always output in the layer coordinate system and does not support transformation to a different coordinate system. RSYS has no effect on REINF264 element solution.

To inspect REINF264 element results, select only REINF264 element results or adjust the translucency level of the base elements before executing any plotting command. REINF264 display options are also available directly via the GUI (Main Menu> Preprocessor> Sections> Reinforcing> Display Options).

The Element Output Definitions table uses the following notation:

A colon (:) in the Name column indicates that the item can be accessed by the Component Name method (ETABLE, ESOL). The O column indicates the availability of the items in the file jobname.out. The R column indicates the availability of the items in the results file.

In either the O or R columns, “Y” indicates that the item is always available, a letter or number refers to a table footnote that describes when the item is conditionally available, and “-” indicates that the item is not available.

Table 264.4: REINF264 Item and Sequence Numbers lists output available via the ETABLE command using the Sequence Number method. See Creating an Element Table and The Item and Sequence Number Table in this document for more information. The following notation is used in Table 264.4: REINF264 Item and Sequence Numbers:

The i value (where i = 1, 2, 3, ..., NL) represents the reinforcing member number of the element. NL is the maximum reinforcing member number (1 NL 250).

REINF264 Assumptions and Restrictions

REINF264 Product Restrictions

There are no product-specific restrictions for this element.