Material Properties

When adding a new material or editing an existing material, the material properties list contains several editable fields.

The editable properties depend on whether you have selected Active Project or All Properties:

Material Property Types

Each property contains a Type field. The type can be one of the following:

• Simple – The property takes a simple value.
• Tensor – A full 3x3 matrix general tensor, which may or may not be symmetrical.
• Nonlinear – The property varies according to a DE, JE, or BH curve.
• Vector – The property requires a magnitude and direction.
• Custom – Properties that do not fit into one of the these types.

Change a property's type by clicking it and using the drop-down menu:

Not all types are available for all properties.

Consult the following topics for more information:

• Defining Tensor Material Properties
• Defining Nonlinear Material Properties
• Defining Vector Material Properties
• Defining Custom Material Properties

Editing Active Project Properties

Most often, you will want to modify a material's properties for the Active Project:

Materials in the Active Project have the following properties:

• Relative Permittivity
• Relative Permeability
• Bulk Conductivity
• Dielectric Loss Tangent
• Magnetic Loss Tangent

For conducting materials:

• Specify the bulk conductivity.

For dielectric materials:

• Specify the relative permittivity, relative permeability, and dielectric loss tangent (if applicable). See: Editing Frequency-dependent Material Properties.

Editing All Properties

Selecting All Properties allows you to modify the Electromagnetic, Thermal, and Structural physics for a material. Use the check boxes to select the type(s) of properties you would like to edit.

Editable Electromagnetic properties include:

• Electric Coercivity
• Magnetic Coercivity
• Magnetic Saturation
• Lande G Factor
• Delta H
• Core Loss Model
• Mass Density
• Composition
• Magnetostriction
• Inverse Magnetostriction

Editable Thermal properties include:

• Thermal Conductivity
• Mass Density
• Specific Heat
• Thermal Expansion Coefficient
• Thermal Material Type
• Solar Behavior

Editable Structural properties include:

• Mass Density
• Young's Modulus
• Poisson's Ratio
• Thermal Expansion Coefficient

In addition to editing these physics properties, you can view and edit thermal and spatial modifiers.