Material Properties

Material properties define the structure and thermal characteristics of each part in the assembly.

In SimSolid, materials are assumed to remain in the linear-elastic region of the stress-strain curve for structural analysis. That is, strains are assumed small (<0.2%) and material properties do not change with load or time.
Figure 1.


For structural analyses only density, Young’s modulus, and Poisson’s ratio must be defined. Additionally, material yield strength is used to calculate factors of safety. For thermal analysis, only thermal conductivity and the coefficient of linear expansion are required.

SimSolid comes with a sample material database which defines these parameters for common materials (steel, aluminum, and so on). Custom material properties can be created as well.
Important: Material properties can dramatically effect simulation solution results. Material properties provided with SimSolid are intended as examples only. Actual material properties should be obtained from the relevant part or material supplier and entered in a local user database. SimSolid Corporation does not verify or validate the accuracy of the examples materials provided.

Onshape Material Property Integration

The design model integration with Onshape supports both geometry and material properties. When parts are imported, SimSolid checks the Onshape material name. If the name is identical to a SimSolid material name, the SimSolid material properties are assigned. The Onshape density values are not used; all material property values are from the SimSolid material database. This provides a convenient way to assign and manage material properties in Onshape documents. Now geometry updates retain the CAD based material property definitions.