Using the Material Library in the classroom
Being able to create a simulation that mirrors reality depends not only on accurate geometries and physics but also the specification of real-world materials. Rather than expect students to enter massive amounts of data, the Materials Library automates the process but still offers flexibility:
- 2500 materials and 20,000 properties—Each of these material properties is described as a function of some variable, typically temperature. In all, the Material Library contains a total of almost 20,000 property functions
- Search feature—A search feature lets you look for materials by name, UNS number, or DIN number
- Manipulate the library—You can plot and inspect the definition of a function, while it is also possible to copy materials to a user-defined library where you can add and edit their properties
- External property data sources—The material library can also accept files generated by the MatWeb material property database (www.matweb.com). This is a searchable database of over 59,000 material data sheets