Material Properties

Material properties are defined on the Material Properties Spreadsheet and then are referred to as you build section sets, members, and plates. You can perform analysis using any type of material; simply define the properties for the material here. You can use up to 500 materials in a single model although most models will only have one or two. For example, your model might be made up of members of various grades of steel along with different concrete materials, timber or aluminum.

Material Properties Spreadsheet

The Material Properties spreadsheet records the material properties to be used in the model and can be accessed by selecting Materials from the ‘Data Entry’ section of the ‘Explorer’ panel. The entries are explained below.

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The values for A36 steel are the default material set. You of course don't have to use the A36 properties; you can change these and also add as many other materials as you need. You can then save your preferred materials as the default materials by clicking the Save as Defaults button on the Spreadsheets tab.

Material Properties Spreadsheet - Columns

Column	Description
Label	The Label column displays the material label you wish to use to describe the entered material properties. This label is how you will reference the set of properties later when definingsection sets, members, and plates.
E	The ‘E’ column displays Young's modulus that describes the material stiffness.
G	The ‘G’ column displays the shear modulus and can be left blank if you would like it calculated automatically. The equation for “G” is: Note: If you enter a value for Shear Modulus that does not match the value calculated using the above equation you will be given a warning. The default Plywood material has a much lower G value than the formula above would suggest. This is because plywood is NOT an isotropic material. Also, the generic value (from the NDS or APA's Plywood Design Specification) has been reduced somewhat to account for assumed nail slip.
Nu	The ‘Nu’ column displays Poisson's ratio. Besides being used for the “G” calculation, this value is also used for shear deformation calculations. The value of Poisson's ratio may not exceed '0.5'.
Therm	The Therm column displays the coefficient of thermal expansion and is entered per 10^5 (100,000) degrees. This coefficient is used in the calculation of thermal loads.
Density	The Density column displays the material density and is used in the calculation of the member and plate self weight. This density times the area gives the self weight per unit length for the members; density times plate volume gives the total weight of a given plate.
Yield	The Yield column displays the yield stress and is used only for Hot Rolled and Cold Formed steel design.

Hot Rolled Specific Material Data

The Hot Rolled tab records a number of hot rolled steel specific material properties that do not exist for the other materials. These entries are described below:

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Hot Rolled Specific Material Data

Column	Description
Ry	The ‘Ry’ column displays the ratio of the expected yield stress to the specified minimum yield stress. This value is used in determining the required strength of an element for the seismic detailing checks.
Fu	The ‘Fu’ column displays the specified minimum tensile strength. This value is used per AISC 358 to calculate C_pr which is in turn used to calculate the probable maximum moment at a plastic hinge in the seismic detailing calculations.
Rt	The ‘Rt’ column is currently not used by the program. In a future version of the program this value will be used to calculate the expected tensile strength for the seismic detailing checks.

Cold Formed Specific Material Data

The Cold Formed tab records a cold formed material property that may not exist for the other materials. This entry is described below:

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Cold Formed Specific Material Data

Column	Description
Fu (Ultimate)	The ‘Fu’ column displays the ultimate tensile stress.

Wood Specific Material Data

The Wood tab records a number of wood specific material properties that do not exist for the other materials. These entries are described below:

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Wood Specific Material Data

Column	Description
Type	The Type column displays the available wood types; currently, there are four: Solid Sawn, Glulam, SCL (this includes LVLs), and Custom.
Database	The Database column displays the appropriate Database menu, filtered by your Type choice.
Species	The Species column displays the appropriate Species menu, based on your Database selection. This is the wood species designation from your selected design code.
Grade	The Grade column displays the wood grade designation from your selected design code. This has a drop down list where you can select the appropriate grade.
Cm	The ‘Cm’ check-box determines if the wet service / moisture content factor should be applied. If you put a check in the Cm field, the appropriate factors will be applied to the allowable stresses and Young’s Modulus (E).
Ci	The ‘Ci’ check-box determines if the incision factor should be applied. If you put a check in the Ci field, the appropriate factors will be applied to the allowable stresses and Young’s Modulus (E).
Emod	The Emod column displays the factor that is applied to the Young’s modulus modifier to reflect the NDS Appendix F criteria. This is not applicable to the CSA O86 design code.

Note: Refer to Custom Wood to specify a custom wood material.

Commercial Species Groups

When either the NDS 05/08, 12, 15, or 2018 wood design code is selected, the Solid Sawn Species menu lists two new species listed that are not specifically shown in the NDS code. These are the Commercial Species Group I - DF/SP and Commercial Species Group II - HF/SPFe Fir. These are meant to be simplified groupings of the most commonly used wood species. It is meant to simplify the selection procession for wood member design in the United States.

The design values for Group I take the NDS allowable stress values for two of the most widely used species (Doug Fir-Larch and Southern Pine) and uses the lower bound allowable stress value for each size and grade. To verify exactly what base allowable stress values were used, you can review the properties in the Shape Selection window.

Similarly, the design values for Group II take the allowable stress values for Hem Fir and Spruce-Pine-Fir and use the lower bound allowable stress values for each size and grade. To verify exactly what base allowable stress values were used, you can review the properties in the Shape Selection window.

Concrete Specific Material Data

The Concrete tab records a few concrete specific material properties that do not exist for the other materials. These entries are described below:

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Concrete Specific Material Material Data

Column	Description
f'c	The ‘f'c’ column displays the concrete compressive strength used for concrete design.
Lambda	The ‘Lambda column displays the lightweight concrete modification factor. This factor only applies to the ACI 318-14, ACI 318-11, ACI 318-08 and CSA A23.3-04 codes. For all other codes the Density value of the material determines any strength reduction. The program automatically calculates the correct value if it is left blank. Only values between 0.75 and 1.0 will be considered.
Flex Steel	The Flex Steel column displays the reinforcement yield strength for flexural bars in members and vertical bars in walls. Shear Steel is the reinforcement yield strength for shear bars in members and horizontal bars in walls.

Masonry Specific Material Data

The Masonry tab records masonry specific material properties. Here we describe items that do not exist for other materials.

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Masonry Self Weight can be accounted for by two different methods. Entering a number for the density will result in masonry walls which have a self weight equal to that density multiplied by the wall cross-sectional area. Otherwise, click within the cell to launch the masonry self weight dialog:

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Set the Using Block and Grout Properties option to have the program automatically calculate the self weight of the wall using the weights from tableB3 of the Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook (RMEH). The self weight will be listed as Custom.

Masonry Specific Material Data

Column	Description
f'm	The ‘f'm’ column displays the masonry compressive strength used for masonry design.
Flex	The Flex displays the rebar yield strengths for flexural bars used to reinforce the masonry.
Shear Steel	The Shear Steel displays the rebar yield strengths for shear bars used to reinforce the masonry.

Note:

Masonry Shear Steel is automatically set to the Flex steel strength.
Masonry materials are used only for walls in wall footings. See the Wall Footing Definitions spreadsheet for more information.

Aluminum Specific Material Data

The Aluminum tab records a number of aluminum specific material properties that do not exist for the other materials. These entries are described below:

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Aluminum Specific Material Data

Column	Description
Table B.4	The Table B.4 column displays the table that refers to the Buckling Constants for a series of Temper designations. This column has a drop down list where you can pick from Table B.4.1 equations or Table B.4.2 equations. Note: This table is named Table 3.3 in ADM 05 and this column has a drop down list where you can pick from Table 3.3-3 equations or Table 3.3-4 equations.
kt	The ‘kt’ column refers to coefficient for tension members listed in the ADM 10 Table A.3.3.
Ftu	The ‘Ftu’ column displays the specified tensile ultimate strength.
Fty	The ‘Fty’ column displays the specified tensile yield strength.
Fcy	The ‘Fcy’ column displays the specified compressive yield strength.
Fsu	The ‘Fsu’ column displays the specified shear ultimate strength.
Ct	The ‘Ct’ column refers to Buckling Constant Intersection for Axial Compression in Curved Elements per Table B.4.1 and Table B.4.2 ADM 10.

Stainless Steel Specific Material Data

The Stainless tab records stainless steel material properties. These entries are described below:

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Stainless Steel Specific Material Data

Column	Description
n	The ‘n’ column displays the specified Ramberg Osgood parameter used for determining secant modulus. See AISC DG27 Table 6-1.
Yield	The Yield column displays the specified yield stress.
Fu	The ‘Fu’ column displays the specified ultimate tensile stress.

General Material Data

The General tab records general material properties. These entries are described below:

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Cold Formed Specific Material Data

Column	Description
Plate Methodology	The Plate Methodology column displays the behavior to use for plate analysis: isotropic or orthotropic. For more information, see Orthotropic Behavior.

Material Take-Off

Access the Material Take-Off spreadsheet by selecting it from the Results menu.

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This spreadsheet shows material takeoff information for each material and shapein the model. For each material the shapes are listed with the total length and weight. The total length and weight for each material is summed beneath the listing of shapes.

The length listed is the sum of the lengths of all the members assigned to this shape. Member end offsets are deducted from the length. The weight is the sum of the self-weight for all elements assigned to section set. This weight is calculated as Area * Density * Length for each member, again with offset distances deducted from the length.

For Concrete members and plates, the volume is shown rather than the length of the members.

Note:

This material takeoff report is independent of the loads applied to the model, i.e. the applied loads do not influence this report.
The number of pieces is reflective of the number of members of a particular size. For example, one double angle will be counted as one piece, with the length being the member length, and the weight being that of the double angle.
Plates are also included in the Material Take-Off.