Materials in simulation

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Practical knowledge for simulation professionals who need to understand how material behavior is tested, modeled, and represented in FEA.

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Mold Tempering: Conformal Cooling - yes or no?

The tempering layout for injection molds is often designed departing from previous experiences. The manufacturing feasibility is the main driver when deciding where to place cooling lines. However, often the relevance of the tempering in the process profitability or in the part quality is underestimated, and due to the lack of better information sometimes the resulting tempering performs far from the optimum. As a consequence, the molding efficiency is reduced, the part quality is compromised and, once the mold is already built, sometimes expensive trial-and-error is required to bring the mold to an optimum configuration.

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Understanding the Role of Material Properties in Simulations, Part 2

We discuss material properties in injection molding simulations, including the definition of property requirements, identification of evaluation parameters, and the role of material properties at each stage of the injection molding process, from mold filling through cooling, post-filling and shrinkage/warpage considerations.

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Improved Plasticity and Failure models for Extruded MgProfiles in Crash Simulations

"The Crash Simulation of Magnesium Structures with Finite Element Methods demands the use of suitable material and failure models. An associated plasticity model describing the complex asymmetric yield behaviour in tension and compression of Mg extrusions has been developed during the InMaK-project (Innovative Magnesium Compound Structures for Automobile Frames) supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Differences to the material model 124 in LS-DYNA are exposed. In order to describe the failure behaviour of Mg extrusions under multiaxial loading in FEM crash simulation this constitutive model has been combined with a fracture model for ductile and shear fracture. The fracture model has been added to the user defined constitutive magnesium model in LS-DYNA. The experimental investigations carried out on model components are compared with numerical derived results. Experimental methods for fracture parameter evaluation are shown and general aspects of metal failure due to fracture as well as different modelling techniques are discussed."

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Use of Digital Image Correlation to Obtain Material Model Parameters for Composites 

The development of material parameters for FEA is heavily reliant on precision material data that captures the stress-strain relationship with fidelity. While conventional methods involving UTMs and extensometers are quite adequate for obtaining such data on a number of materials, there are important cases where they have been known to be inadequate. The testing of composites to obtain directional properties remains a complex task because of the difficulty related to measuring these properties in different orientations. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) methods are able to capture the stress-strain relationship all the way to failure. In this paper, we combine DIC and conventional methods to measure directional properties of composites. We exploit the unique capability of DIC to retroactively place virtual strain gauges in areas of critical interest in the test specimen. Utilising an Iosipescu fixture, we measure shear properties of structured composites in a variety of orientations to compute the parameters of an orthotropic linear elastic material model. Model consistency is checked by validation using Abaqus.

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Material Modeling of Soft Material for Non-linear NVH 

Abaqus’ Non-linear NVH capability permits the capture of material behavior of rubber seals and bushings, plastic parts and foam inserts which have a significant influence on the simulation. In this presentation, we discuss material calibration procedures for this application.

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Applying Digital Image Correlation Methods to SAMP-1 Characterization 

SAMP-1 is a complex material model designed to capture non-Mises yield and localization behavior in plastics. To perform well, it is highly dependent on accurate post-yield material data. A number of assumptions and approximations are currently used to translate measured stress-strain data into the material parameters related to these inputs. In this paper, we look at the use of direct localized strain measurements using digital image correlation (DIC) as a way to more directly extract the required data needed for SAMP-1.

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Behavior-based Material Model Selection and Calibration of Plastics for Crash Simulation 

Many material models are available for crash simulation. However, common models are not designed for plastics. We present best practices developed for adapting common models to plastics, as well as best testing protocols to generate clean, accurate rate-dependent data. In addition, we present a streamlined process to convert raw data to LS-DYNA material cards, and harmonized material datasets that allow the same raw data to be used for other crash and rate-dependent analysis software.

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A Simplified Approach to the Simulation of Rubber-like Materials under Dynamic Loading

"The simulation of rubber materials is becoming increasingly important in automotive crashworthiness simulations. Although highly sophisticated material laws are available in LS-DYNA to model rubber parts, the determination of material properties can be non-trivial and time consuming. In many applications, the rubber component is mainly loaded uniaxially at rather high strain rates. In this paper a simplified material model for rubber is presented allowing for a fast generation of input data based on uniaxial static and dynamic test data."

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White Paper: Standardized Validation Brings Confidence to 3D Printing

Finite element analysis contains assumptions and uncertainty from a number of sources, which can impact the fidelity of the simulation. This uncertainty is often left untested up to prototyping stages. DatapointLabs’ CAETestbench Validation service was developed to add a mid-stage validation step to a designer’s workflow, to test these simulations before parts are made, in order to build confidence in an engineer’s model beforehand. This validation step is illustrated in a 3D printing application.

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