Material Behaviors

Material behaviors allow you to define collections of material options that will be active in different simulations. You can define all of the potential options in a Simulation domain, then create multiple simulation behaviors for different combinations of options that should be active in a simulation; when you perform a simulation, the material option combination defined by the current Default behavior is used.

Certain combinations of material options are not allowed in a simulation, so material behaviors can also be used to manage conflicting options within a Simulation domain.

Related Topics
Material Application
Material Options
Defining Material Behaviors

By default, every material option you define in a Simulation domain is accounted for during a simulation. However, certain material options may not be applicable to a specific simulation, or they may add additional complexity to a material that is not important or interesting for a specific simulation. In addition, some material options cannot be used simultaneously during a simulation, as described below.

Material behaviors allow you to specify combinations of material options by activating or deactivating the available options. Each behavior can have different combinations of active and inactive options. You can define as many behaviors as there are viable option combinations.

The option combination defined by the material behavior that is set as the default is used for subsequent simulations. When you change the default behavior in a Simulation domain, only subsequent simulations are impacted; results from simulations that have already been created and use this Simulation domain are not impacted and do not appear out of date unless you reapply the material in the simulation.

Important: The following rules must be respected when creating a simulation material behavior:
  • Each behavior must have at least one active option.
  • Isotropic Elasticity and Viscoelastic cannot be active in the same behavior.
  • Activating Isotropic Plasticity in a behavior also requires the activation of Isotropic Elasticity in the same behavior. By extension, Isotropic Plasticity and Viscoelastic cannot be active in the same behavior.