findStructuralProperties

(To be removed) Find structural material properties assigned to geometric region

findStructuralProperties will be removed. Use the MaterialProperties property of femodel instead. (since R2023a) For more information on updating your code, see Version History.

Syntax

smpa = findStructuralProperties(materialProperties,RegionType,RegionID)

Description

smpa = findStructuralProperties(materialProperties,RegionType,RegionID) returns the structural material properties assigned to the specified region. Structural properties include Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, the mass density, the coefficient of thermal expansion, and the hysteretic damping parameter of the material.

Examples

Find Young's Modulus and Poisson's Ratio

Find Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio for cells of a 3-D geometry.

Create a structural model.

structuralmodel = createpde("structural","static-solid");

Create the geometry consisting of three stacked cylinders and include it in the model. Plot the geometry.

gm = multicylinder(10,[1 2 3],"ZOffset",[0 1 3]);
structuralmodel.Geometry = gm;
pdegplot(structuralmodel,"CellLabels","on","FaceAlpha",0.5)

Assign different values of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio to each cell.

structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"Cell",1,"YoungsModulus",200E9, ...
                                              "PoissonsRatio",0.3);
structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"Cell",2,"YoungsModulus",210E9, ...
                                              "PoissonsRatio",0.3);
structuralProperties(structuralmodel,"Cell",3,"YoungsModulus",110E9, ...
                                              "PoissonsRatio",0.35);

Check the structural properties specification for cell 1.

mC1 = findStructuralProperties(structuralmodel.MaterialProperties, ...
                                                         "Cell",1)

mC1 = 
  StructuralMaterialAssignment with properties:

           RegionType: 'Cell'
             RegionID: 1
        YoungsModulus: 2.0000e+11
        PoissonsRatio: 0.3000
          MassDensity: []
                  CTE: []
    HystereticDamping: []

Check the structural properties specification for cells 2 and 3.

mC23 = findStructuralProperties(structuralmodel.MaterialProperties, ...
                                                     "Cell",[2,3]);
mC2 = mC23(1)

mC2 = 
  StructuralMaterialAssignment with properties:

           RegionType: 'Cell'
             RegionID: 2
        YoungsModulus: 2.1000e+11
        PoissonsRatio: 0.3000
          MassDensity: []
                  CTE: []
    HystereticDamping: []

mC3 = mC23(2)

mC3 = 
  StructuralMaterialAssignment with properties:

           RegionType: 'Cell'
             RegionID: 3
        YoungsModulus: 1.1000e+11
        PoissonsRatio: 0.3500
          MassDensity: []
                  CTE: []
    HystereticDamping: []

Input Arguments

materialProperties — Material properties

MaterialProperties property of StructuralModel object

Material properties of the model, specified as the MaterialProperties property of a StructuralModel object.

Example: structuralmodel.MaterialProperties

RegionType — Geometric region type

"Face" for a 2-D model | "Cell" for a 3-D model

Geometric region type, specified as "Face" for a 2-D model or "Cell" for a 3-D model.

Example: findStructuralProperties(structuralmodel.MaterialProperties,"Cell",1)

Data Types: char | string

RegionID — Geometric region ID

vector of positive integers

Geometric region ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs by using pdegplot.

Example: findStructuralProperties(structuralmodel.MaterialProperties,"Face",1:3)

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

smpa — Material properties assignment

StructuralMaterialAssignment object

Material properties assignment, returned as a StructuralMaterialAssignment object. For details, see StructuralMaterialAssignment Properties.

Version History

Introduced in R2017b

R2025a: To be removed

findStructuralProperties will be removed. Use the MaterialProperties property of femodel instead.

For example, you can check the material properties as follows.

model = femodel(AnalysisType="structuralTransient", ...
                Geometry="Block.stl");
model.MaterialProperties = ...
        materialProperties(YoungsModulus=200e9, ...
                           PoissonsRatio=0.3,MassDensity=7800);
model.MaterialProperties

You also can check a particular property:

model.MaterialProperties.YoungsModulus

You can check properties for a particular cell or face:

model.MaterialProperties(1)
model.MaterialProperties.YoungsModulus(1)

The unified finite element model workflow defines the type of a problem and all of its parameters as the properties of an femodel object. This object enables you to specify physical parameters for structural, thermal, and electromagnetic types of analyses. The solver in the unified workflow uses only the parameters (properties) appropriate for the current analysis type while ignoring all other properties. If you switch the analysis type by setting the AnalysisType property of the model, the solver uses the appropriate set of properties corresponding to the new analysis type.

For more help migrating your existing code that uses StructuralModel to the unified finite element workflow, see Migration from Domain-Specific to Unified Workflow.