The COSMOS Companion

Material Properties Used in COSMOSWorks

Volume 104

Sponsored by:

What is the COSMOS Companion?

The COSMOS Companion is a series of short subjects to help design engineers build better products with SolidWorks Analysis Video presentations and accompanying exercises A tool for Continuous Learning on your schedule Pre-recorded videos are accompanied by a more detailed webcast with Q & A
Download videos and review webcast schedule at:
http://www.cosmosm.com/pages/news/COSMOS_Companion.html

It is not an alternative to instructor-led introductory training

We highly recommend you take a course with your local reseller to build a solid knowledge base

Material Properties in FEA

All physical bodies have a stiffness
Soft Rubbers Low Stiffness Granite High Stiffness

The stiffness of a part is a combination of its geometry and its material properties To a finite element solver, stiffness is one of the primary datasets used to predict stress and displacement The geometry of a model is defined by the mesh The material properties assigned to the mesh must reflect the properties of the actual part just as the mesh must reflect the geometry of the actual part

Material Properties in FEA

The material properties needed for a COSMOSWorks solution vary by the solution type
i.e Static, Frequency, Buckling, Fatigue

However, they can generally be put into two categories:

Properties required to calculate a response; Input Properties Properties required to interpret a response; Failure Properties

This COSMOS Companion unit will focus on the first set of structural properties Subsequent units will examine Thermal and Nonlinear Input Properties as well as Failure Properties

Input Properties

COSMOSWorks allows the input of the following structural properties:

Elastic Modulus; E Poissons Ratio, Shear Modulus; G Density; Coefficient of Thermal Expansion; Cte

What are they? Where do they come from? How do they vary?

Stress-Strain Curve

engr
Mild Steel

Cast Iron Aluminum Ultimate Tensile Strength

Yield Strength (0.2% Strain Offset)

Proportional Limit

0.2%

Initial Slope = E

engr

Stress-Strain Curve
ASTM E8 Tensile Test of Metals
Uses a round sample

Specifies strain rate, sample shape, and other data required to properly interpret the tensile test data Stress-Strain data from an E8 Tensile Test for an A36 Steel

Ref 1

Stress-Strain Curve
For plastic materials, tensile testing is performed using ASTM D638 & a flat sample The specification allows for multiple sample sizes, shapes, temperatures, and strain rates

engr

Strain at Yield

Yield Strength

Strain to Failure (% Elongation)

Ultimate Tensile Strength

Initial Slope = E

engr

Modulus of Elasticity
The Modulus of Elasticity is most commonly known as Youngs Modulus, E This can be determined by the slope of the linear portion of a stress-strain diagram The modulus of elasticity in tension and compression are approximately equal for ductile materials

Stress vs. Strain to Yield (0.2%).

Stress vs. Strain to Proportional Limit

Ref 1

Modulus of Elasticity
Other elasticity modulii are sometimes referred to for non-ferrous materials due to the difficulty of isolating the linear portion of the curve
Tangent Modulus of elasticity is the slope of the stress-strain diagram at any point. Secant Modulus of elasticity is stress divided by strain at any given value of stress or strain. Tangent and Secant modulii are equal up to the Proportional Limit of a material.
Secant Modulus

engr

Tangent Modulus

Proportional Limit

engr

Modulus of Elasticity
The Youngs Modulus for plastics or other highly nonlinear materials is the slope in the first few data points reported by the tensile test Flexural Modulus is often reported in datasheets for plastic materials
Flex Mod is calculated using a 3 point bending test defined in ASTM D790. Since bending involves compression and tension, Flex Mod only equals tensile mod if the material is symmetric, or the compressive and tensile stiffnesses are the same. Furthermore, Flex Mod is calculated using linear equations from measured Force-Displacement data. Once displacement approaches specimen thickness, this calculation becomes unreliable due to nonlinearity in the system.

Modulus of Elasticity
Variations in Modulus of Elasticity Youngs Modulus is consistent across varying alloys of many engineering metals.
Regardless of Alloy, Youngs Mod of:
Steel = 30e6 psi or 200,000 MPa Aluminum = 10e6 psi or 65,000 MPa

This is not true for most other materials

Youngs Modulus is sensitive to changes in temperature and strain rate, or speed of loading
Lower Temperatures = Higher Modulus Faster Strain Rate = Higher Modulus

Modulus of Elasticity
Impact of Youngs Mod on FEA Results Youngs Mod represents the stiffness, or spring constant, of a material Materials with a higher Youngs Mod are stiffer Stress is independent of Youngs Mod Consider these equations for stress:
= F/A = Mc/I = PRi/2t Uniaxial Tension of a Rod Pure Bending of a Plate Stress in a Spherical Pressure Vessel

There are no material property terms!

Modulus of Elasticity
Impact of Youngs Mod on FEA Results
Displacement

Von Mises Stress

3.00E+05 2.90E+05 2.80E+05 2.70E+05 2.60E+05

0.45

0.40

Von Mises Stress (psi)

=0% =85%
Max VMS Displacement

0.35

0.30

0.25 2.50E+05 2.40E+05 2.30E+05 2.20E+05 2.10E+05 2.00E+05 100,000 0.10

0.20

0.15

0.05

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

0.00 30,000,000

Youngs Modulus (psi)

Displacement (in)

Poissons Ratio
Poissons Ratio is the ratio of lateral strain to longitudinal strain; lat / long & unitless Couples strain in 3 dimensions Relevant to linear elastic portion of stress strain curve If a user fails to specify a Poissons Ratio, COSMOSWorks assumes 0.0

Prior to load

Shape under load

-
Typical Materials: = 0.0 to ~0.5 (Steel=0.3)

Poissons Ratio
Impact of Poissons Ratio on FEA Results Impact on results is negligible in most cases If you cant find Poissons Ratio, use 0.3
0.071 0.071 0.070 310,000 308,000 306,000

0.070 0.069 0.069 0.068 0.068 0.067 0.067 0.066 0.066 0

=4.1% =3.9%

304,000 302,000 300,000 298,000 296,000 294,000 292,000

Displacement Von Mises Stress

290,000 288,000 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Poissons Ratio

Von Mises Stress (psi)

Displacement (in)

Shear Modulus
Specification of Shear Modulus, G, is redundant when Youngs Modulus and Poissons Ratio are specified since they are linearly related: E = 2G(+1) Shear Modulus is calculated internally by COSMOSWorks using the above relationship even if it is explicitly specified.

Density
Density is the ratio of weight or mass to volume While COSMOSWorks requests Mass Density, the value entered is more commonly known as weight density as can be seen by the wellknown weight density for steel, 0.283 lbf/in3 Weight & Mass Density values differ by the gravitational constant which is appropriate for that particular unit set:
386.4 in/s2 or 9,800 mm/s2

Density is only a required input if you are performing a Frequency analysis or you have specified a Gravity, Acceleration, or Centrifugal Load in your model If you are unsure of the units for gravity for your material, build a simple test model as shown and query the constraint reaction force

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

Indicates how much a material expands/contracts with a change in temperature Units are length/(length*temp)
For example: If Cte = 6.5 in/in-F A 1 inch dimension will increase by 6.5 in for every 1 F increase in temperature

Remember that for an isotropic material, this thermal expansion is in all directions simultaneously

Isotropic vs. Orthotropic

Isotropic Materials
A material is isotropic if its mechanical and thermal properties are the same in all directions.

Orthotropic Materials
A material is orthotropic if its mechanical or thermal properties are unique and independent in three mutually perpendicular directions. Examples of orthotropic materials are wood, many crystals, and rolled metals. A detailed discussion of Orthotropic Materials will be provided in a subsequent COSMOS Companion unit

Using MatWeb
Basic Matweb is free For a yearly subscription fee, users can automatically download Matweb Properties into the COSMOSWorks material library Either way, Matweb is an excellent material data resource

www.matweb.com

Presentation Summary
In this COSMOS Companion unit, we explored the Input Properties required for linear structural analysis in COSMOSWorks The basic test methods for tensile testing, the workhorse test for FEA related properties was reviewed The impact of property variation on FE results was discussed Techniques for evaluating the sensitivity of your model results to material data variability were shared

Conclusion
For more information Contact your local reseller for more in-depth training or support on the material properties used in COSMOS Review the on-line help for a more detailed description of the features discussed Attend, or better yet, present at a local COSMOS or SolidWorks user group.
See http://www.swugn.org/ for a user group near you

Other resources for material property information:

Instron (www.instron.com): A leading manufacturer of material testing equipment ASM International (www.asminternational.org): The American Society for Materials has many excellent references with property listings, stress strain curves, failure properties, as well as Handbooks on a variety of material related issues Bayer Resins (www.polymers-usa.bayer.com/): Excellent references on plastic material properties