XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX''"> Overview of Materials
In Patran, a material is defined as a named group of material-related properties that are relevant for a particular finite element analysis. Material properties tell Patran what your model is made of (steel, a composite, etc.) and define the attributes of that material (such as density, stiffness, specific heat, elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and so on). Patran provides a materials application form and several subforms that allow you to create, modify, show and delete materials.
Each analysis code supports a different set of materials. The properties you must specify for a material depend on several factors:
• The type of analysis you will run (such as structural or thermal).
• The analysis code you have selected (such as MD Nastran).
• Whether you are entering the material property definition yourself, or selecting a definition from an external run file.
• Your choice of certain key characteristics (such as material type and one or more constitutive models).
• In some cases, the element type to which you will assign the material.
When you define a material property, it is not yet associated with the finite element model. Only when the element property is created, is the material is then associated with the model. It is the element property that references both the model and the material. The Element Properties application is described in
Element Properties.
After you have defined the materials and assigned them to the model, you can select a viewport display of material property sets that includes XY plots of selected properties. You can also view a tabular display of the stiffness or compliance matrices that result from the material properties.