Setup Material Libraries

Manage material data.

  1. Manage Materials:
    • Add, Modify, or Remove Materials: In the Material Manager dialog, you can add, edit, or remove materials.
    • Export Materials: You can also export material data as a Material File (*.mtrl) for later use.
  2. Edit Materials:
    • To Modify a Material: Double-click on a material in the list, or select it and click Edit.
    • To Add a New Material: Click Add Dielectric or Add Conductor to open the Edit dialog.
  3. Define Material Properties:
    • Conducting Materials: Define the electric resistivity, relative magnetic permeability, and thermal conductivity for the x, y, and z axes.
    • Dielectric Materials: Specify the dielectric constant, loss tangent, and thermal conductivity for the x, y, and z axes.
  4. Save and Load Material Files:
    • Use the Import and Export buttons to save your material data to a file or load an existing material file.


Figure 1.


Figure 2.


Figure 3.
The following table describes the representative properties of dielectric and conductive materials.
Table 1.
Property Description
Conductivity
Electrical conductivity or specific conductance is a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current. When an electrical potential difference is placed across a conductor, its movable charges flow, giving rise to an electric current. The conductivity σσ is defined as the ratio of the current density J to the electric field strength E:
J=σEJ=σE

It is also possible to have materials in which the conductivity is anisotropic, in which case σσ is a 3×3 matrix (or more technically a rank-2 tensor), which is generally symmetric.

Conductivity is the reciprocal (inverse) of electrical resistivity, ρρ , and has the SI units of siemens per meter (S·m-1) and CGSE units of inverse second (s–1):
σ=1ρσ=1ρ
Resistivity Electrical resistivity ρρ is defined as:
ρ=EJρ=EJ
Where,
ρρ
Static resistivity (measured in volumeters per ampere, V m/A)
EE
Magnitude of the electric field (measured in volts per meter, V/m)
JJ
Magnitude of the current density (measured in amperes per square meter, A/m2).
The electrical resistivity ρρ can also be given by:


Figure 4.
ρ=RAl
Where,
ρ
Static resistivity (measured in ohmmeters, Ω m)
R
Electrical resistance of a uniform specimen of the material (measured in ohms, Ω)
l
Length of the piece of material (measured in meters, m)
A
Cross-sectional area of the specimen (measured in square meters, m²)
Electrical resistivity is also defined as the inverse of the conductivity σ of the material, or:
ρ=1σ
Magnet Permeability In electromagnetism, permeability is the measure of the ability of a material to support the formation of a magnetic field within itself. In other words, it is the degree of magnetization that a material obtains in response to an applied magnetic field. Magnetic permeability is typically represented by the Greek letter μ. The reciprocal of magnetic permeability is magnetic reluctivity.

In SI units, permeability is measured in the henry per meter (H m-1), or newton per ampere squared (N A-2). The permeability constant (μ0), also known as the magnetic constant or the permeability of free space, is a measure of the amount of resistance encountered when forming a magnetic field in a classical vacuum. The magnetic constant has the exact value μ0 = 4π×10−7 ≈ 1.2566370614...×10−6 H·m-1 or N·A-2).

Thermal Conductivity Thermal conductivity is the quantity of heat transmitted through a unit thickness in a direction normal to a surface of unit area, due to a unit temperature gradient under steady state conditions.

Thermal conductivity with heat transfer coefficients.

1 W/(mK) = 1 W/(moC) = 0.85984 kcal/(hr moC) = 0.5779 Btu/(ft hr oF)

Dielectric Constant A dielectric is an electrical insulator that may be polarized by the action of an applied electric field. When a dielectric is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material, as in a conductor, but only slightly shift from their average equilibrium positions causing dielectric polarization. Because of dielectric polarization, positive charges are displaced along the field and negative charges shift in the opposite direction. This creates an internal electric field which partly compensates the external field inside the dielectric. If a dielectric is composed of weakly bonded molecules, those molecules not only become polarized, but also reorient so that their symmetry axis aligns to the field.

While the term "insulator" refers to a low degree of electrical conduction, the term "dielectric" is typically used to describe materials with a high polarizability. The latter is expressed by a number called the dielectric constant. A common, yet notable, example of a dielectric is the electrically insulating material between the metallic plates of a capacitor. The polarization of the dielectric by the applied electric field increases the capacitor's capacitance.

Loss Tangent The loss tangent is a parameter of a dielectric material that quantifies its inherent dissipation of electromagnetic energy. The term refers to the angle in a complex plane between the resistive (lossy) component of an electromagnetic field and its reactive (lossless) component.