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Multi-Physics Material Modeling
Altair Material Modeler is a collection of data fitting tools for polymers in a single cohesive studio environment with a workflow designed around using the results for various manufacturing and structural simulations including injection molding, extrusion, temperature-dependent structural simulation, short fiber multiscale modeling, and hyperelastics.
Material Overview Page
Material General Information
Specify the material general information such as material name, class, chemical family, designation for fiber-filled polymer, the manufacturer, and data source, including last updated date and notes.

Welcome
Altair Material Modeler
Generating accurate material properties can be a time-consuming process, Altair Material Modeler (AMM) is a sophisticated modeling software that efficiently processes material data from testing to generate simulation-ready material cards for analyzing the nonlinear behavior of bulk materials as well as the various physical properties of materials, such as polymers and elastomers, used in the manufacture of modern products.
What's New
Here’s a quick look at the latest features available with Altair Material Modeler.
Tutorials
Discover the features of Altair Material Modeler with interactive tutorials.
Elastoplastic Material Modeling
This chapter provides information from preparing data to generating a material card.
Multi-Physics Material Modeling
Altair Material Modeler is a collection of data fitting tools for polymers in a single cohesive studio environment with a workflow designed around using the results for various manufacturing and structural simulations including injection molding, extrusion, temperature-dependent structural simulation, short fiber multiscale modeling, and hyperelastics.
- Material Overview Page
  - Material General Information
    Specify the material general information such as material name, class, chemical family, designation for fiber-filled polymer, the manufacturer, and data source, including last updated date and notes.
  - Material Test File List
    The Material Test File List and file type values are auto-populated based on the selected Objective. The file type can be changed based on the type of file to be read or if numerical values are to be entered.
  - Project Folder
    Define your project purpose using the Objective list and Pick Project Folder. The purpose automatically configures the Material Test File List metadata and its values, which defines the required and the optional data for fitting.
  - File Load and Save
    Files load and save are saved as a variable called PDSmat. The file stores all your material data and test results.
  - File Preview and Export
    The File Preview tool allows users to review content before saving it to a file.
- Specific Volume (pvT) Fitting
  Specific Volume is the inverse of Specific Gravity, and its dependence on temperature and pressure forms an equation of state from which several physical quantities can be derived. The Specific Volume Fitter is a sophisticated tool designed to fit specific volume test data of a polymer or composite to various mathematical models beginning with the Tait model, and it is currently executed from the Material Modeler - Polymer application or via the Compose REPL. This function is compatible with data from various testing machines.
- Shear Viscosity
  Once the file is imported and the viscosity data is fit, the Cross Model with Williams -Landel-Ferry (WLF) is displayed as the default viscosity model pair. To inspect other options, choose a model for shear viscosity or temperature dependence to review the Viscosity vs Shear Rate and Temperature.
- Recommend Process Conditions
  At the start of the process, default settings for molding and extrusion are loaded based on the polymer family. Each type of thermoplastic polymer has default values for parameters like minimum and maximum melt temperatures. These values are pre-set defaults based on common standards, and are meant to be replaced when specific values are known. These serve as reference values in simulation setup and in post processing, depending on the specific quantity.
- Temperature-Dependent Modeling
  Many manufacturing and other engineering applications require a thermal component to the material characterization. Thermal analyses and mechanical analyses involving temperature sensitive mechanical properties of polymers and other advanced materials frequently require a multi-physics approach to their analysis and thus the properties of the material. As these thermal properties will change with temperature Material Modeler has, and is continuing to develop modeling of these thermal properties with respect to temperature to support the growing segment of thermal-mechanical simulation and analysis.
- Multiscale Characterization
  Characterization of advanced materials and composites is best done with a multiscale approach. Altair's Multiscale Designer (MDS) is run in batch mode to combine the properties of a neat polymer and the fibers based on their volumetric composition (Forward Characterization). Material Modeler takes the Specific Volume of the Composite and of the fibers in order to construct, and fit to the Tait model, the Specific Volume of the Neat Polymer (Reverse Volumetric Characterization). This can be used along with a table of elastic or shear moduli vs temperature in order to obtain the Poisson Ratio parameters leading to a model for the full isotropic elastic properties of the neat polymer.
- Hyperelastic Material Modeling
  Hyperelasticity is a type of constitutive behaviour for materials like natural rubber that exhibit large non-linear elastic deformations. These materials return to their original shape upon unloading, following a nonlinear stress-strain relationship.
Shear Viscosity

Material General Information

Specify the material general information such as material name, class, chemical family, designation for fiber-filled polymer, the manufacturer, and data source, including last updated date and notes.

Enter a Material Name.
Select the Polymer Class from the list. The classes are:
- Polymer Thermoplastic : Polymer material that can be melted and formed repeatedly. This is analogous to butter or chocolate.
- Polymer Thermoset : Polymer material that crosslinks during manufacture. This is analogous to cooking an egg.
The image auto-changes based on the class you select. Many hyperelastics are thermosets and the models used for describing their behavior are based on crosslined elastomers. Theroplastic elastomers exhibit some hyperelastic qualities but also significant yielding that is limited or impossible with thermoset due to the crosslinking.
Select the Chemical Family based on the chosen polymer class.
Select Fiber Filled Polymer to describe the matrix material, the neat polymer.
Choose one of the following options:
- Enter the Material Manufacturer name.
- Click to view the list of material manufacturers.
Choose one of the following options:
- Selection Box to the Right
- Options for data source: "Mixed" (use comments), AMDC, CAMPUS Plastics, Laboratory Report (..), Reference Books, or Reference Web Sites (e.g., NIST)
- Specify the independent laboratory name.
- Click to view the list of independent laboratory names.
The Data Last Updated displays the last updated date of the material model.
Enter your reference notes of the material model.