structuralProperties

(To be removed) Assign structural properties of material for structural model

structuralProperties will be removed. Use materialProperties instead. (since R2023a) For more information on updating your code, see Version History.

Syntax

structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",YMval,"PoissonsRatio",PRval)

structuralProperties(___,"MassDensity",MDval)

structuralProperties(___,"CTE",CTEval)

structuralProperties(___,"HystereticDamping",g)

structuralProperties(___,RegionType,RegionID)

mtl = structuralProperties(___)

Description

structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",YMval,"PoissonsRatio",PRval) assigns Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio for the entire geometry. Use this syntax if your model is static and does not account for gravitational and thermal effects.

Tip

A structural model supports only homogeneous isotropic materials. Therefore, all material properties must be numeric scalars.

structuralProperties(___,"MassDensity",MDval) assigns the mass density of the material for the entire geometry, and can include any of the arguments used in the previous syntax. Specify the mass density of the material if your model is transient or modal, or if it accounts for gravitational effects.

structuralProperties(___,"CTE",CTEval) assigns the coefficient of thermal expansion for a thermal stress analysis. Use this syntax if your model is static and accounts for thermal effects.

structuralProperties(___,"HystereticDamping",g) assigns the hysteretic damping parameter that models damping forces counteracting velocity but independent of frequency. Use this syntax for direct and modal frequency response analyses.

structuralProperties(___,RegionType,RegionID) assigns material properties for the specified geometry region.

mtl = structuralProperties(___) returns the material properties object.

Examples

Structural Material Properties for Static Model Accounting for Gravity

Create a structural model.

structuralModel = createpde("structural","static-solid");

Import and plot the geometry.

importGeometry(structuralModel,"BracketWithHole.stl");
pdegplot(structuralModel,"FaceAlpha",0.5)

Specify Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and the mass density.

structuralProperties(structuralModel,"YoungsModulus",200e9, ...
                                     "PoissonsRatio",0.3, ...
                                     "MassDensity",7800)

ans = 
  StructuralMaterialAssignment with properties:

           RegionType: 'Cell'
             RegionID: 1
        YoungsModulus: 2.0000e+11
        PoissonsRatio: 0.3000
          MassDensity: 7800
                  CTE: []
    HystereticDamping: []

Input Arguments

structuralmodel — Structural model

StructuralModel object

Structural model, specified as a StructuralModel object. The model contains the geometry, mesh, structural properties of the material, body loads, boundary loads, and boundary conditions.

Example: structuralmodel = createpde("structural","transient-solid")

YMval — Young's modulus

positive number

Young's modulus of the material, specified as a positive number.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",210e3,"PoissonsRatio",0.3)

Data Types: double

PRval — Poisson's ratio

number greater than 0 and less than 0.5

Poisson's ratio of the material, specified as a number greater than 0 and less than 0.5.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",210e3,"PoissonsRatio",0.3)

Data Types: double

MDval — Mass density

positive number

Mass density of the material, specified as a positive number. This argument is required for transient and modal models. MDval is also required when modeling gravitational effects.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",210e3,"PoissonsRatio",0.3,"MassDensity",11.7e-6)

Data Types: double

CTEval — Coefficient of thermal expansion

real number

Coefficient of thermal expansion, specified as a real number. This argument is required for thermal stress analysis. Thermal stress analysis requires the structural model to be static.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",210e3,"PoissonsRatio",0.3,"MassDensity",2.7e-6,"CTE",11.7e-6)

Data Types: double

g — Hysteretic damping

nonnegative number

Hysteretic damping, specified as a nonnegative number. This type of damping is also called structural damping.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"YoungsModulus",210E9,"PoissonsRatio",0.3,"MassDensity",7800,"HystereticDamping",0.1)

Data Types: double

RegionType — Geometric region type

"Face" for a 2-D model | "Cell" for a 3-D model

Geometric region type, specified as "Face" for a 2-D model or "Cell" for a 3-D model.

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"Cell",1,"YoungsModulus",110E9,"PoissonsRatio",0.3)

Data Types: char | string

RegionID — Cell or face ID

vector of positive integers

Cell or face ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs using pdegplot with the "CellLabels" (3-D) or "FaceLabels" (2-D) value set to "on".

Example: structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"Cell",1:3,"YoungsModulus",110E9,"PoissonsRatio",0.3)

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

mtl — Handle to material properties

StructuralMaterialAssignment object

Handle to material properties, returned as a StructuralMaterialAssignment object. See StructuralMaterialAssignment Properties.

mtl associates the material properties with the geometric region.

Version History

Introduced in R2017b

R2025a: To be removed

structuralProperties will be removed. Use materialProperties instead.

For example, you can specify Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and mass density as follows.

model = femodel(AnalysisType="structuralStatic", ...
                Geometry="BracketWithHole.stl");
model.MaterialProperties = ...
        materialProperties(YoungsModulus=200e9, ...
                           PoissonsRatio=0.3, ...
                           MassDensity=7800);

The unified finite element model workflow defines the type of a problem and all of its parameters as the properties of an femodel object. This object enables you to specify physical parameters for structural, thermal, and electromagnetic types of analyses. The solver in the unified workflow uses only the parameters (properties) appropriate for the current analysis type while ignoring all other properties. If you switch the analysis type by setting the AnalysisType property of the model, the solver uses the appropriate set of properties corresponding to the new analysis type.

For more help migrating your existing code that uses StructuralModel to the unified finite element workflow, see Migration from Domain-Specific to Unified Workflow.

R2022a: Hysteretic damping

You can now specify hysteretic damping of a material for direct and modal frequency response models.

R2018b: Coefficient of thermal expansion

You can now specify a coefficient of thermal expansion.