Temperature dependent materials

Temperature-dependent materials are those where the material properties depend on the temperature at which they are measured. Temperature-dependent material definitions contain both Basic and Advanced property sets. The properties that are needed and used in a simulation depend on the study type.

Study types using only the Basic material properties

When choosing one of your temperature-dependent materials for any of the following study types, only the Basic material properties are used, and your temperature-dependent material is approximated as a linear isotropic material.

• Static Stress
• Modal Frequencies
• Structural Buckling
• Shape Optimization
• Electronics cooling

Study types using Basic and Advanced temperature-dependent material properties

When choosing one of your temperature-dependent materials for any of the following study types, both Basic and Advanced material properties are used. Only the Density value within the Basic properties list is currently applicable to the thermal and nonlinear study types. All other relevant parameters come from the Advanced properties.

• Thermal
• Thermal Stress
• Nonlinear Static Stress
• Quasi-static Event simulation
• Dynamic Event simulation

The Fusion material libraries do not contain predefined temperature-dependent materials. Although there are various grades of metals, plastics, glass, and more in the Fusion Material Library, they are currently based on constant isotropic properties (not temperature-dependent properties). You must create your own temperature-dependent material definitions in the Favorites library, which you can optionally copy to a user-created temperature-dependent Materials library. You can use these predefined materials as starting templates for creating temperature-dependent material definitions.

A set of tables appears when you add a temperature-dependent material to the library, for entering data for each property at different temperatures. Data for least two different temperatures are needed for each material property, that encompasses the full range of thermal results expected from the simulation. Data for the following material properties must be entered in order of ascending temperature:

• Specific Heat
• Thermal Conductivity
• Thermal Expansion Coefficient
• Young's Modulus (modulus of elasticity)
• Poisson's Ratio
• Yield Strength
• Ultimate Tensile Strength