About Layered Shells
The Layered Shell interface is based on the layerwise theory of modeling a composite laminate. A layerwise (LW) theory is very similar to the traditional 3D elasticity theory where the degrees of freedom are only the displacement fields defined in the
product
geometry
. The product geometry, or a domain, is defined by the reference geometric surfaces and a virtual extra dimension in the thickness direction.
The key features of the layerwise theory and a comparison with ESL theory and 3D elasticity theory are described in
Laminated Shell Theories
in the documentation for the Composite Materials Module.