LESSON 2

Materials Data and Using the Materials

Database Manager, PFMAT

Objectives:
■ Increase your familiarity with the P/FATIGUE
material data base manager

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LESSON 2

Exercise Description:
This exercise is designed to increase your familiarity
with the P3⁄FATIGUE material data base manager. The Step 1 Problem
materials database to which it interfaces has a structure Description
which supports all the types of materials data (listed
below) associated with the three methods of fatigue life
estimation:

■ monotonic data

■ stress-life data

■ strain-life data

■ cyclic stress-strain data

■ multi-environment crack growth data

By using this database, all users of P3⁄FATIGUE have
access to all the necessary data in one central location.

PFMAT may be accessed from the P3/FATIGUE Main

Menu by picking option 1 (within PATRAN 3); it may be
run outside of PATRAN 3 by typing pfmat; or it may be
operated in batch.

The objective of this exercise is to see how to input the

materials data in the database by using PFMAT. You will
run PFMAT in two ways:

■ outside of PATRAN interactively

■ operated in batch mode

A component was tested under a constant amplitude,
fully reversed loading conditions to produce S-N data as
shown in Table 2-1.

To ensure proper execution of this exercise, make sure

you are in the ex02 directory of your PAT318 account.

PATRAN 318 Exercise Workbook - Release 1.2 2-3

 Table 2-1 Material Properties for MYMAT
Material Properties MYMAT
Stress Range Intercept, SRI1 (MPa) 10710
Slope b1, -0.3333
Transition life, NC1 (cycles) 1.0E7
Slope b2, -0.2
Fatigue Limit, FL (MPa) 10
Standard error, SE 0.2
Young’s Modulus, E (MPa) 205800
UTS (MPa) 700
Ratio R -1

Run PFMAT outside PATRAN interactively to create this

Step 2 Entering material by typing the following commands. As with
Data PTIME, you may accomplish these tasks by using the
mouse if you are using the Xwindow driver or you may
use the hot keys (first capitalized letter) and arrow keys
to select options:

pfmat Starts PFMAT program.

Create Create option

data set 1 You may have two materials loaded

from the database into the database
manager at once. We will create this
material entry in data set 1.

<RETURN> No password creates a local copy of da-

tabase.

Now you are in the position where you need to input the
material parameters. You are presented with various
screen pages in which you must enter these parameters.
The first page consists of the material name and
descriptions.

Primary name MYMAT - enter the name of the material you

are creating.

Alternative names You may give your material other names if

you wish.

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LESSON 2

Reference You may enter a reference.

Comments You may enter two lines of comments.

When each page is filled in appropriately press F1 or

click on OK in the top header bar.

The second page consists of generic materials data. It

should be noted that the units for all the material
parameters are in the SI unit system. (Stress in MPa).
You can change the units in which you work by setting
the preferences from the PFMAT main menu. The only
parameters fields that need to be filled out on the second
page are:

UTS 700 MPa - Ultimate tensile strength.

E 205800 MPa - Young’s Modulus.

Note: UTS and E must be present when specifying

generic data.

Press F1 to accept this page of data.

Since we are interested in total life analysis, then you

only need to input the stress data on the third page. (Use
the arrow, the mouse, or return keys to move to the
correct field.)

SR11: 10710 MPa - Stress Range Intercept

b1: -0.3333 - First fatigue strength exponent.

Nc1: 1.0E7 cycles - Fatigue transition point.

b2: -0.2 - Second fatigue strength exponent.

FL: 10 MPa - Stress range fatigue limit.

SE: 0.2 - Standard error of Log(N).

Press F1 to accept the data on this page.

Since you have no fracture mechanics (LEFM) data,

press F1 to accept the last page by leaving it empty. The
data is now entered and a new entry will exist in the
database under the name MYMAT. To confirm its
existence, press Return to go back to the main menu and
note the entry on the top of the window just below the top
header bar.

PATRAN 318 Exercise Workbook - Release 1.2 2-5

 Press X to exit from PFMAT.

The whole of PFMAT cannot be operated in batch.

However, to automate the creation of the material
Step 3 Batch database, the Create option may be operated from batch
Operation mode. This will be useful for users who have an existing
materials database in ASCII format and wish to transfer
their data to P/FATIGUE.

The batch file command line points to a file which

contains a list of keywords, materials parameters and
values required to describe those particular materials.
The command below references to the ASCII file
mat1.mat.

pfmat @mat1.mat

The format of this ASCII file is:

/<keyword>=<value>

The possible keywords and their function are described

below:

/OPTion= Batch operation is restricted to the Create

and eXit options of PFMAT. This keyword
is mandatory and must appear as the first
and last lines in the file.
(/OPT= CREATE, /OPT=EXIT)

/INDB= This is mandatory. It means, put the materi-

al IN the DAtabase.
(/INDB=YES)

/MATNO= This specifies whether you are loading ma-

terial data into material dataset number 1 or
2. This keyword is optional.
(/MATNO=1)

/PASSword= If you wish to load the data into the central

database you must supply the password.
This keyword is optional and a local data-
base must be present if it is not supplied.
(/PASS=MYDATA)

/PRImary= This is the primary name you are giving to

the material you are loading. This keyword
is mandatory.
(/PRI=MYMAT)

/SECondary= This is the secondary name you are giving

to the material you are loading. This key-
word is optional and you may have up to

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LESSON 2

nine.
(/SEC=MEGALLOY)

/REFerence= A character string up to 64 characters.

(/REF=From some handbook)

/COMment= A character string up to 64 characters and a

second one up to 32 characters.
(/COM=High strength steel)

/TYPE= A material code. See the User Guide for a

description.
(/TYPE=99)

The next set of keywords are generic data. UTS and E

must be present when specifying generic data. The units
must be compatible with the preference setting in
PFMAT.

/YS= Yield strength in stress units.

(/YS=324)

/UTS= Ultimate tensile strength in stress units.

(/UTS=552)

/E1= Young’s Modulus in stress units.

(/E1=2.034E5)

/K1C= Fracture toughness in units of MPa*m1/2 or

KSI*inch1/2.
(/K1C=121)

/N1= Work hardening exponent.

(/N1=0.21)

/K2= Work hardening coefficient in units of

stress.
(/K1=965)

/ME= Elastic Poisson’s ratio.

(/ME=0.3)

/MP= Plastic Poisson’s ratio.

(/MP=0.5)

The next set of keywords define the strain life (ε-N)

dataset. Either all must be present or none when defining
strain life data.

/ESF = Fatigue strength coefficient in stress

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 units.
(/ESF=917)

/EB = Fatigue strength exponent.

(/EB=-0.095)

/EC = Fatigue ductility exponent.

(/EC=-0.47)

/EF = Fatigue ductility coefficient.

(/EF=0.26)

/EN1 = Cyclic Hardening exponent.

(/EN1=0.19)

/EK = Cyclic strength coefficient in stress

units.
(/EK=1103)

/ENC = Cut-off (reversals).

(/ENC=2E8)

/ESE = Standard Error of Log (N)

(/ESE=0)

The next set of keywords define the stress life (S-N)

dataset. Either all must be present or none when defining
strain life data.

/SNT= S-N type - Either Material or Component.

(/SNT=M)

/SRI1 = Stress range intercept in stress units.

(/SRI1=8948)

/B1 = First fatigue strength exponent.

(/B1=-0.2)

/NC1 = Fatigue transition point (cycles).

(/NC1=2E8)

/B2 = Second fatigue strength exponent.

(/B2=-0.1)

/SFL = Stress range fatigue limit in stress units.

(/SFL=10)

/SE = Standard error of Log (N)

(/SE=0.137)

/RRAT = R ratio
(/RRA=-1)

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The next set of keywords define the linear elastic fracture

mechanics (LEFM) dataset. Either all must be present or
none when defining strain life data.

/ENV = Environment, max 30 chars.

(/ENV=air)

/FL = Unnotched fatigue strength in stress units.

(/FL=226)

/C = Paris law coefficient (m/cycle or inches/cy-

cle).
(/C=3E-12)

/M = Paris law exponent.

(/M=3.43)

/D0 = Delta K threshold at R=0 (MPa*m1/2 or

KSI*inch1/2).
(/D0=8)

/D1 = Delta K threshold at R->1 (MPa*m1/2 or

KSI*inch1/2).
(/D1=2)

/RC = Stress ratio at threshold knee.

(/RC=0.75)

/K1SCC = Stress corrosion threshold (MPa*m1/2 or

KSI*inch1/2)
(/K1S=121)

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 The file MAT1.MAT is an ASCII file which contains the
following keywords:

/OPT = CREATE
/INDB = YES
/PASS=
/PRI=MYMAT2
/SEC=MEGALLOY
/REF=Data from somewhere
/COM=Example for class
/MATNO=2
/TYPE=99
/UTS=552
/E1=2.034E5
/YS=324
/K1C=121
/N1=0.21
/K2=965
/ME=0.3
/MP=0.5
/ESF=917
/EB=-0.095
/EC=-0.47
/EF=0.26
/EN1=0.19
/EK=1103
/ENC=2E8
/ESE=0
/SNT=M
/SRI1=1102
/B1=0
/NC1=1E2
/B2=-0.602
/SFL=0
/SE=0
/RRAT=-1
/ENV=Air
/FL=226
/C=3E-12
/M=3.43
/D0=8
/D1=2
/RC=0.75
/K1S=121
/ENV=Sea Water
/FL=200

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LESSON 2

/C=2E-12
/M=2.43
/D0=7
/D1=3
/RC=0.85
/K1SCC=100
/OPT = EXIT
Read this file into PFMAT by issuing the following
command:

PFMAT @mat1.mat

Then enter PFMAT and see if the material was loaded

properly. You should see both the material you added
earlier manually and the one you entered in batch mode.
(Check the upper left corner below the top header bar.) If
one or both are not there, load them into the database
manager by using the Load option. Load the material
MYMAT into data set one and MYMAT2 into dataset 2.

Check to see that the data was loaded properly also by

selecting the Tabulate option and subsequently Data
values from the PFMAT main menu. You will be
presented with a number of pages tabulating the data
values for each material loaded into the database
manager. You may also experiment with the material
curve plots. However we will go into more detail on these
in later exercises.

If you have problems reading this file, check the file

called batlog.lst, which gives a detailed account of which
batch commands were processed and if there were any
errors. One error you may encounter is datavalues not
being in the proper range. One way to get around this is
to set the material checking flag off under the
Preferences option in the main menu.

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