Instead of defining a material trough a library, user can create an isotropic material by its basic properties:
Elastic modulus.
Poisson ratio.
Density.
Linear thermal expansion coefficient.
By default the new material is defined with linear properties but later constitutive laws may be changed to nonlinear by modifying the stress-strain diagram.
For generic materials, orthotropic properties may be activated. Materials are considered to be orthotropic if the properties depend on the direction.
Since all material properties in an orthotropic material are independent, it is your responsibility to enter all the data required to match the dimension of the stress-strain law of the elements listed for this material. No defaults for this data are provided by CivilFEM.
One of the main issues to consider for both isotropic and orthotropic materials is the difficulties in interpreting results if a local element axis is used and the local element axes are not aligned consistently.
Available orthotropic properties are Young modulus, Poisson’s ratio, Shear modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion.
