Extensive Materials Library: AKA Golden Nuggets for Product Engineers
When you need to test the performance of your product with virtual simulation, you MUST properly define the product’s physical characteristics so your test results closely mirror the product’s real behavior. Then this question often arises; “where can I find the material properties for my virtual simulations”? In many cases, the answer is not always ideal. For example, researching this information can be cumbersome and not really efficient during the design process.
Good news: SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Simulation provide every user with an extensive list of pre-defined materials properties. This includes more than 450 materials (SOLIDWORKS Materials and SOLIDWORKS DIN Materials) listed in the Material library both for 3D CAD design and 3D Simulation.
This information is sourced from the “Metals Handbook Desk Edition (2nd Edition), ASM International”.
This rich library includes properties for steel, irons, Aluminum Alloys, Copper Alloys, Titanium Alloys, Plastics…
On top of the structural properties, the library is enriched with SOLIDWORKS Sustainability. In this example of environmental impact simulation tools, the available materials include Sustainability data from GaBi LCA Database.
On top of the structural properties, the library is enriched with SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation and the Engineering Database, which contains unit systems, physical properties of fluids and solids, characteristics of a wide range of engineering devices, custom visualization parameters, etc. It then offers, for example, temperature dependent solid properties (to take into account conduction phenomena). The Engineering Database can be, like the SOLIDWORKS Materials library, fully customized with user data.
Getting access to such a complete Materials properties library is highly valuable and pretty unique for Simulation users. The library is common for design and simulation so users do not need to redefine material properties in simulation once it is completed in the design process.
What happens if you do not find the material you need in the default library? Don’t worry; a solution, called the SOLIDWORKS Materials Web Portal, is available to SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium users. If you are a SOLIDWORKS Simulation Subscription Services customer, you can access a large library of materials via the online SOLIDWORKS materials portal. This extended material database is provided through a partnership with Matereality LLC. This portal offers nonlinear materials (stress-strain curve) and fatigue curve (SN curve). Such sophisticated material data can be difficult to find without this portal even if they are crucial for nonlinear analysis and metal fatigue simulations.
To download and apply a material from the SOLIDWORKS Materials Web Portal, you simply need to select the Material Model and the Type of Materials. Then the Materials Web Portal searches for available materials based on the selection criteria. It lists all material matches in a matrix format.
The SOLIDWORKS Materials Web portal offers unique material library for the Product Engineers so they can test their design effectively without the need to look in books, on the web or with third party tools.
Product Engineers, using the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Solution, have access to a golden nugget with rich and extensive material libraries to help them design and test their products efficiently.
Delphine Genouvrier
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