Materials

As there are nearly no limits to possible application of CAE simulation, an abundance of materials is employed. This reaches from typical steels and ferrous materials to non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, magnesium and titanium; from synthetic materials such as thermoplastics and thermosets to foams, textiles, and fabrics. The choice of materials involves design-engineering matters like the load behaviour under forces, deformations, and temperatures. Besides it comprises issues like production and manufacturability; and, of course, economic efficiency needs to be taken into account at all times.

In CAE simulation a high quality of material definition is of fundamental importance. Thus, a crucial task is the creation of material cards, basing on specimen and component tests, and the verification of these so-called material decks. This material definition needs to describe a material’s linear and non-linear deformation behaviour as well as its damage behaviour with extreme deformations, cracks, and ruptures.

Being able to meet the complex demands of material description requires expertise as well as constant further training. In addition, we participate in various research projects that deal with characterising diverse materials under diverse specifications by numeric approaches and descriptions. One focus is on materials for turbomachines such as forging and casting materials. We have been chairing FVV’s research project FVV0936 “containment safety”, FFV – ‘science for a moving society’ being a research association formerly named Forschungsvereinigung Verbrennungskraftmaschinen. Research topic FVV0936 covers a detailed examination of aluminium and cast-iron materials, reaching from specimen tests under static and dynamic load to the penetration of projectiles at moderate temperatures for compressors as well as at high temperatures for turbines. These investigations were implemented into an appropriate material description for the numeric application in containment simulation.