- [Instructor] Sourcing the correct properties
and defining them in the analysis database
is a vital part of the FEA workflow.
It is tempting just to grab
any convenient material property,
but we need to avoid that.
This video shows you how to build your own material library
and place the correct material properties within it.
This really helps to impress anybody
who's going to be checking your work.
To see the FEA feature tree,
you may need to click on the study tab.
It's shown here, but it may be hidden,
like this, for example, so just click on the study tab
to bring up the model feature tree.
The geometry icon in the FEA feature tree shown here
is labeled con_rod_baseline.
Right mouse click on this, and then the first menu item
is to apply edit material.
Click on this, and a material library appears
with a list of material properties.
This is the default Solidworks material library.
There are a wide range of material properties
in the library, but in our case, the correct steel
for the con rod isn't in here.
Right mouse click on any of the items or the libraries,
and we're going to select New Library.
Type in the name of the library as Course Materials.
The library will be given an automatic extension of sdlmat.
Click Save, and New Library will now appear
in the list of libraries.
Right mouse click on Course Materials,
and select New Category.
Type Steel into the label.
Right mouse click and select New Material.
A dialog box now opens, ready for you
to input your material properties.
Make sure the units are set to English IPS.
Enter the name of the steel as 4030 Forced Steel.
Overwrite the elastic modulus, 29.7E6.
Overwrite the Poisson's ratio as .29.
We can set the sheer modulus to be zero.
The mass density we're going to set to .284.
The tensile strength we'll set to zero.
Ignore the compressive strength.
We'll set the yield strength to 68,600.
And I'll overwrite the thermal conductivity
and the specific heat with zeroes.
The material properties shown in red
are those that are required for a linear starting analysis.
If you miss out any of the items in red,
then Solidworks will give you a warning
and not let you commit the material to the database.
The sheer modulus will be calculated from
the elastic modulus, in other words, Young's modulus,
and Poisson's ratio, which is why we've set it
to the default zero.
The tensile strength label used by Solidworks
means ultimate tensile strength,
and we won't be using this in a linear starting analysis.
The yield strength will be used to establish
a margin of safety.
The density will be used when we apply an acceleration
to create the axial inertial load in the con rod.
Now, the Solidworks label used here of mass density
is incorrect.
We're actually defining a weight density.
This is a very important distinction,
and we'll return to this point
when we apply the acceleration and develop
the intertial load later on.
When all the items are complete, we click on Save,
and the name of our new material appears
in the Course Materials custom database.
Finally, we hit Apply, and our new material
will be committed to the con rod geometry model.
And then we can close out.
Return to the FEA feature tree.
The label 4030 Forged Steel now appears
next to the geometry icon.
Finally, save the Solidworks model.
And we save this as con_rod_baseline_2.
Click Save.
So in this video, you've seen how to create
a new material property and put it into
a specific project library.
This library can be used for any part that
you create in Solidworks.
The process may seem a little pedantic, but trust me,
material properties are the first thing
any reviewer will be checking.