Materials

Assigning materials to Geometry objects is completely optional in sectionproperties. In fact, if you are not conducting a composite analysis it is recommended to not specify material properties as this adds little value to the analysis results.

If undertaking a composite analysis, materials can be created using the Material object:

class sectionproperties.pre.pre.Material(name: str, elastic_modulus: float, poissons_ratio: float, yield_strength: float, density: float, color: str)

Class for structural materials.

Provides a way of storing material properties related to a specific material. The color can be a multitude of different formats, refer to https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/colors_api.html and https://matplotlib.org/stable/gallery/color/named_colors.html for more information.

Variables:

• name (str) – Material name

• elastic_modulus (float) – Material modulus of elasticity

• poissons_ratio (float) – Material Poisson’s ratio

• yield_strength (float) – Material yield strength

• density (float) – Material density (mass per unit volume)

• color (str) – Material color for rendering

Example

The following example creates materials for concrete, steel and timber:

from sectionproperties.pre import Material

concrete = Material(
    name="Concrete",
    elastic_modulus=30.1e3,
    poissons_ratio=0.2,
    density=2.4e-6,
    yield_strength=32,
    color="lightgrey",
)
steel = Material(
    name="Steel",
    elastic_modulus=200e3,
    poissons_ratio=0.3,
    density=7.85e-6,
    yield_strength=500,
    color="grey",
)
timber = Material(
    name="Timber",
    elastic_modulus=8e3,
    poissons_ratio=0.35,
    density=6.5e-7,
    yield_strength=20,
    color="burlywood",
)

Material objects are assigned to Geometry objects, learn more about how to manipulate a Geometry’s material here, Assigning Material Properties.

Assigning materials affects the results reported by sectionproperties, learn more here.