Working with Materials
The Material Browser Window
The Material Browser window () contains a number of databases with a broad collection of elastic, solid mechanics, electromagnetic, fluid, chemical, thermal, piezoelectric, and piezoresistive properties of materials. The number of material databases depends on which COMSOL products your license includes. See About the Material Libraries for information about available material databases. Use the Material Browser to find predefined materials and add them to the Model Builder, or create a custom material library.
To open the Material Browser :
•
In the Materials toolbar, click Browse Materials.
•
Right-click the Materials node (), and then select Browse Materials.
•
From the Home toolbar, select Windows>Material Browser.
To open the Material Browser :
•
In the Model Toolbar, click Browse Materials.
•
Right-click the Materials node (), and then select Browse Materials.
•
Select Windows>Material Browser.
The Material Browser is similar to The Add Material Window but it includes detailed property information about each material. From this window you can also create a new material library and import a material library. See Adding Materials to a Component for information about adding materials to your model’s components (geometries). Click Done () to close the Material Browser and add the materials in the Added to model list to the model. Click Cancel (), press Escape, or click in the main toolbar to exit the Material Browser without adding any materials.
Right-click a material library in the Material Browser and choose Reload Selected () to clear all cached data for that library and force the COMSOL Multiphysics software to reload the content from the file system. This operation is useful, for example, if the library is a user-defined library that has been edited since the COMSOL Multiphysics session started and needs to be reloaded to display the latest contents.
You can browse all of the available material databases or search for specific materials. There is also a Recent Materials folder where you find the most recently used materials. Search a specific material by name (or, for the Material Library product, by UNS number or DIN number, which are listed in the Material Browser when available).
When browsing the material databases, in particular the Material Library, some materials include additional information — UNS number, DIN number, and composition.
As in Figure 9-3, the following information is included in the window to the right of the material tree. Navigate in the material tree and click a material to display the information.
Material availability is based on the type of COMSOL Multiphysics license. For example, if you have the MEMS Module, you have the Built-In, Liquids and Gases, MEMS, and Piezoelectric material libraries.
Properties
While browsing the databases, predefined material properties for the selected material are listed in a table in the columns Property, Expression, Unit, and the Property group to which the material property belongs. If Property group is empty, the material property is a Basic property.
Under Property reference, for the materials in the Material Library product, reference information about a material’s properties appears when you click a property above.
Inputs
For some materials, predefined function inputs are listed in a table in the columns Input, Variable, and Unit. Inputs appear for material properties defined using functions that require the input. Typical inputs are temperature and pressure, for temperature- and pressure-dependent material properties, respectively.
Create a New Material Library or Import a Material Library
Click the New Material Library button () to open the New Material Library dialog box. You can also right-click a material and select Add to New Library () to create a new material library and add that material to the new library. Go to Creating a New Material Library and Adding and Editing Materials.
Click the Import Material Library button () to open the Choose Material Library dialog box. You can also click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Import Material Library button and choose Import Material From () to open the fullscreen Select Material window and choose the material from a database. Go to Importing a Material Library.
Figure 9-3: The Material Browser details a material’s properties after selection. In this example, the properties of Air, selected from the Built-In library, are listed to the right of the Material Browser folders.