MaterialUniverse™

Updates to the MaterialUniverse™ database.

Part of the Core Materials data (always available in Granta Selector)

Embodied Energy and Climate change (CO2-eq) updated with ecoinvent 3.10
The sustainability indicators for embodied energy and climate change (CO2-eq) have been updated using the latest values from version 3.10 of ecoinvent. The impacted Attributes are:
  • Embodied energy, primary production (virgin grade)
  • Embodied energy, primary production (typical grade)
  • Climate change (CO2-eq), primary production (virgin grade)
  • Climate change (CO2-eq), primary production (typical grade)
Note: The method for calculating environmental impact of typical grades has been updated. Climate change (CO2-eq) and Embodied energy data for certain material classes have therefore been modified.
New records

This release adds more than 75 MaterialUniverse™ records targeted for use in Simulation software packages, with all of the key Attributes required for most mechanical and thermal simulation applications, as well as composition, specification, environmental, price and restricted substances information.

The new records are in the Ferrous and Non-ferrous metals folders, and the polymer Thermoplastics folder, and are included in the All materials Subset.

Improvements to the stress strain data for polymers

The method to estimate True plastic stress-strain curves has been updated to reflect the yield and post-yield behaviour of polymers more accurately.

These curves are derived from the engineering stress vs. strain curves, and in some cases are modified to remove post-yield softening, if present. The resulting true stress vs. plastic strain curves are such that the FE simulations result in a stable response until large strains, as is commonly observed for most polymers.

In some cases, where a yield point cannot be located definitively on the engineering curve, either because the polymer behaves in an elastic-brittle manner or there is insufficient data in the engineering curve, a True plastic stress-strain curve has not been provided.

The new method has been applied to all polymers with data for the True plastic stress-strain attribute. In total, 58 records have been updated with new curves. These include ABS+PC (flame retarded) and PEEK (unfilled) among others. Curves have been removed for 5 records, these include brittle grades such as glass fiber-filled PAI and PS.

The intermediate values from the transformation of engineering stress-strain curves to True plastic strain-strain curves, related to Modulus and Yield Strength, are utilized to populate missing data for some polymer grades. Relevant MaterialUniverse™ attributes are:
  • Tensile Modulus vs Temperature
  • Tensile Strength at Yield vs. Temperature