The Sherlock Material Manager allows for a user to create and modify Sherlock material definitions. Properties modified in the Material Manager are used during analysis. The Material Manager is accessible from Libraries > Materials on the Sherlock homepage and as a standalone utility accessible from the Sherlock Start Menu folder.
In this section, the following topics are covered:
To access the Material Manager, click . The main Material Manager window is organized into two sections. The top section provides a set of fields for filtering the list. The bottom table lists all the materials or those materials matching the filtering criteria.
For example, to generate a list that includes only ALUMINA material types, enter ALUMINA in the Name column filter and press Enter. The table will immediately display only those materials containing ALUMINA. You can apply multiple filters simultaneously.
You can customize and filter the Material Manager window just as you can the Parts List, including setting column visibility and using advanced filtering techniques. Refer to Parts List Management for details on using these features.
Material Manager Icon Ribbon
Add: Add a new material to the Material Library. See Adding and Copying Materials.
Import: Import materials into the Material Library: See Import Materials.
Export: Export materials from the Material Library: Export Materials.
Edit: Edit the selected material: Opens the Material Editor. See Material Editor below.
Copy: Copy the selected material to a new material: See Adding and Copying Materials.
Delete: Delete the selected material from the Material Library: See Deleting Materials.
Reload: Reload the Material Library.
To view or edit a given material, you may double-click the desired material from the materials table. You may also right-click the material entry and select Edit Selected Materials from the context menu.
After selecting a material to edit, the Material Editor dialog window will be displayed. This window provides a look at all the property values defined for the selected material and allows for those property values to be modified.
Subsections:
After selecting a material to edit, a new dialog window appears with a listing of all the available properties for the selected material. From the Material Editor, you can view and make changes to any of the material properties. The Material Editor groups properties into different categories, represented by tabs in the editor. For a complete explanation of the interface, see the sections below, Material Editor Icon Ribbon and Material Editor Property Tabs and Fields.
After making any desired material changes, click the Save button to save the changes to the local copy of the Sherlock Material Library. See the section User Data Files for more information about the location and format of the local Material Library. If you don't wish to save any changes or are simply viewing the material definition, select the Cancel button when done. The Reset button will revert any changes you have made to the definition since opening the dialog to the original settings.
If you wish to view additional material definitions you may do so without closing the Material Editor dialog window by simply selecting the material from the dropdown menu at the top of the window or using the Prev and Next icons. The material selector and the Prev and Next icons are both limited to the filtered materials from the material manager itself. If no filters were applied, then the entire list of materials is available. Following the earlier example where the ALUMINA filter was applied to the Name column, only the ALUMINA materials are displayed as shown here.
Save and Exit: Save changes and exit the editor.
Reset: Reset the form to its last saved values.
Previous: Show the previous material on the list. If you have applied filters to the Material Manager table, only the filtered materials are displayed.
Material Selector: Use this dropdown menu to select the material you wish to edit. When you select another material, changes you made to the current material will be lost if you haven't saved them. If you have applied filters to the Material Manager table, only the filtered materials are listed.
Next: Show the next material on the list. If you have applied filters to the Material Manager table, only the filtered materials are displayed.
Close: Close the dialog. Changes are not saved.
Tip:
Tabs or properties that do not apply to the selected material are disabled.
For properties requiring a unit of measure, select the units from the dropdown list. When you select a new unit of measurement, Sherlock converts the numerical value so the actual value of the property remains the same. This includes fields which may have multiple temperature-dependent properties.
Material Properties Tab
Name: Name of the material
Material Class: Supported values are ALLOY, CERAMIC, and POLYMER.
Usage: Select how the material can be used in Sherlock. For example, if you wish to model component pads with a specific material, you must ensure PAD has been selected under Usage for that material.
Type: Supported value is ELASTIC.
SubType: Supported value is ISO.
Material Density: For material density, Sherlock stores scientific notation values to four digits. In some cases, this may result in entered values being rounded slightly when saved.
Thermal Conductivity: Thermal conductivity of the object being modeled.
Specific Heat: Specific heat of the object being modeled.
Mechanical Tab
Elastic Modulus: Elastic modulus for the given material. For instructions on using the Elastic Modulus calculator, see CTE and Elasticity Modulus Calculators below.
Material CTE: Coefficient of thermal expansion for the given material. For instructions on using the CTE Modulus calculator, see CTE and Elasticity Modulus Calculators below.
Material CTE 2: Coefficient of thermal expansion in the radial direction used for fiber materials. For instructions on using the CTE Modulus calculator, see CTE and Elasticity Modulus Calculators below.
Poisson Ratio: Poisson's ratio for the given material.
Tg: Glass transition temperature (°C) for the given material.
High Cycle Fatigue Tab
Fatigue Exponent: Fatigue strength exponent for the given material.
Fatigue Coefficient: Fatigue strength coefficient for the given material.
Fracture Strength Tab
Fracture Strength: Fracture strength for the given material.
User Tab: The User tab provides a place to record notes about a given material.
Created By: The username (and timestamp) of the person who created the library item definition. If no customized value exists, then the field will display Ansys, Inc.
Modified By: The username (and timestamp) of the person who last modified the library item definition. If no customized value exists, then the field will display Ansys, Inc.
Notes: Here you can enter your own additional information associated with the library item.
Temperature-dependent values can be specified for the following properties:
Elastic Modulus (MPa)
Poisson Ratio
CTE (1/C): Defines the CTE for all homogeneous material. If the material is a fiber, this property defines the axial CTE of the material.
CTE 2 (1/C): Defines the CTE along the radial direction of the fiber. The material property is primarily used in laminate property calculations. For all materials other than fiber, this value is ignored.
Density Properties (tonne/mm3)
Thermal Conductivity (W/m-K)
Fatigue Exponent and Fatigue Coefficient (used for shock and vibration fatigue cycles to failure calculations)
Specific Heat (J/kg-C)
Temperature-dependent values are defined as a set of temperature-value pairs and are passed directly to the FEA engine for all materials used during a given analysis. FEA engines typically use the given data points to determine the property value for a specific temperature by using linear interpolation between the bounding data points. For all temperatures below the minimum temperature specified, the value associated with the minimum temperature will be used. Similarly, for all temperatures above the maximum temperature, the value associated with the maximum temperature will be used.
Temperature-value pairs are specified using the following notation:
| <Value> @ <Temp> <Units> |
where <Value> is the property value, <Temp> is the temperature and <Units> are the temperature units. (NOTE: The value units must be those specified in the list above.) Two or more temperature-value pairs must be comma separated. For example, the following notation:
| 400@20C, 320.5@212F |
specifies a value of 400 at 20 degrees centigrade and a value of 320.5 at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature units can be freely mixed in a given list of temperature-value pairs.
In situations where Sherlock needs to determine a temperature-dependent material property value when no explicit temperature is defined (such as when mixing material property values in a given PCB layer to determine the average layer property value), a room temperature value of 20C is used for interpolation purposes.
To assist with computing temperature dependent values for the CTE and Elastic Modulus properties, Sherlock provides a Temperature-Dependent Properties Calculator. This calculator takes a base CTE or Elastic Modulus value, a Tg value, and temperature range to produce a set of temperature dependent properties.
The calculator bases its calculations on observed behavior in polymers, so you should use the calculator only when dealing with polymers. Generally, the calculator has a 5x decrease in modulus when above Tg, and a 3.5x increase in CTE when above the Tg.
Note: The default values of any system-provided material can be restored by using the Delete Selected Materials menu item from the Material Manager listing. Deleting system-provided materials simply resets those values to their defaults.
Here is how you access the calculator: From the Material Editor for the material BERQUIST HT, select the Mechanical tab to reveal the current CTE and Elastic Modulus values as shown below.
As you can see, the default material contains a single CTE and Elastic Modulus value. To expand this list, click the calculator icon (A) next to the desired field. This opens the Temperature-Dependent Properties Calculator shown below (B). The calculator provides a set of default input properties used to compute additional material temperature values for the selected property. The default Tg and Modulus < Tg (or CTE values) originate from the source material. The default saturation modulus is set to 10x lower than the modulus at room temperature. Refer to the manufacturer's data sheet for the appropriate properties.
Note: To ensure accurate calculations, it is important to clear any parameter you wish to change in the Temperature-Dependent Properties Calculator before computing.
When you click the Compute button, the values will be computed, and the underlying fields updated with new material temperature values. To accept and commit the new material values, click Save.
The input parameters are defined below. The graphs which follow illustrate how the parameters affect the calculations:
Room Temperature: (C,F,K) Ambient Temperature.
Min Temperature: (C,F,K) Temperature lower bound.
Glass Transition Temperature, Tg: (C,F,K)
Modulus change below room temperature (%): The change in the slope of the modulus at room temperature. The modulus does not change much below room temperature. A general guideline is to set it at 0%.
Modulus at room temperature: (MPA, PSI, KSI, GPA, PA) Young's modulus at room temperature.
Saturation Modulus: (MPA, PSI, KSI, GPA, PA) Young's modulus saturation above Tg.
Slope Factor: The slope at Tg.
Shoulder Radius: Curvature of the curve below Tg.
Knee Radius: Curvature of the curve above Tg.
Number of Points on the Curve: The number of points that define the curves.
To add a new material, select Add Material from the Material menu, or right-click in the material table listing and select Add Material from the menu. The Material Editor dialog will appear with all material properties empty, ready for a new material to be defined. When you are complete defining a material, click the Save button to add the new material.
To copy a material, right-click the material to be copied from the material table listing and select Copy Material from the menu. A copy of the material will be made. Provide a product name for the copied material and make any changes desired to the material properties, then click the Save button to add the copied material.
Tip: Starting with Sherlock 22.2, you can go back and update the material Name for materials you have created.
Any user-defined material that is not a Sherlock system material may be deleted. Right-click the material to be delete from the material table listing and select Delete Material from the menu. If the Delete Material item is not available, this indicates that it is not a user-defined material.
If a system material has been modified, the Delete Selected Materials menu item will be available. However, it will not actually delete the material. Deleting a system material that has user-defined properties will simply remove all the user-defined properties and allow the material to revert to being completely system defined.
Material definitions may be exported to CSV or XLS spreadsheet files to allow external viewing or modifications. Exported files can then be used to import material definitions back into the material manager as described in the next section Import Materials.
To export all material definitions, select from the File menu Export Materials or right-click in the material table listing and select Export Material from the context menu. If you wish to export only specific materials, select the materials you wish to export from the material table listing, then right-click the table and select Export Materials. In either case, the Export Material Library dialog, shown below, will be displayed.
The Rows and Columns selections allow you to customize which rows and/or columns should be exported. Select All Rows if all rows should be exported or select Selected Rows if only the rows selected in the material table listing should be exported. Similarly, select All Columns if all columns should be exported or select only specific columns to be exported.
After specifying the output file location, click the Export button. Supported file extensions are .csv, .xls, and .xlsx. If successful, a message will appear indicating the number of rows selected.
Material definitions may be imported into the Material Manager from a CSV, XLS or XLSX spreadsheet file by selecting the File > Import Materials option from the main menu. At that point, a file dialog will be displayed allowing you to designate the file to be imported.
After selecting the file, the Import Material File dialog (shown below) will appear, allowing you to verify the column mapping for each file/sheet that is imported. Sherlock scans each file to determine the number of header rows, the column names and which columns should be mapped to the various Sherlock material properties. Such guesses are usually right, but you should check them anyway by viewing the import file using an appropriate spreadsheet application.
When the import form is filled out properly, press the Import Materials button to import the data.
When the import process has completed, you will see a confirmation dialog. If any material definitions fail to import, then none of the rows in the file will be imported and an error dialog will be displayed with the information regarding why a material definition failed to be imported.
