3. Aster Materials Catalog#

Code_Aster has a Materials Catalog whose objectives are:

  • to provide users with the material data necessary to carry out numerical studies,

  • to ensure the sustainability of information,

  • to guarantee the reliability and consistency of the available data,

  • and to facilitate and automate access to data.

In Code_Aster, the material is defined by a set of characteristics necessary to implement a law of behavior, which are introduced by the general command DEFI_MATERIAU.

In the Materials Catalogue, the material is listed by its designation in standard AFNOR.

The Materials Catalogue distinguishes between two types of materials according to the type of study:

the « **reference material* » for generic studies. It corresponds to a set of products manufactured according to the same well-defined specification. It is characterized by median, minimum and maximum values typical of the population concerned. It is this material that it is advisable to use if a perfect description of the material to be modelled is not available,

the « **particular material* » for specific studies. It corresponds to a well-identified product or to a given material concept. This material is characterized by specific values of its properties, together with extreme values linked to the heterogeneity of the material and/or to the uncertainty in the values. This material is finely documented in order to avoid its systematic careless use.

In addition, it is possible to list different materials (reference or specific) corresponding to the same designation AFNOR. For the same AFNOR designation, the RCC -M distinguishes the material characteristics according to the reference technical specification, the type of product (forged, rolled, tube, sheet,…) and the dimensions of the component. In order to take into account this additional dimension, in the Materials Catalogue, each material is associated with a letter of the alphabet.

To summarize, in the Materials Catalog the materials are listed by a character string that consists of the concatenation:

  • of the designation in standard AFNOR,

  • the word REF (if reference material) or PAR (if particular material),

  • of a letter of the alphabet.

For example: 18 MND5_REF_A

The Materials Catalogue comes in two distinct forms:

a « files » form that can be used by*Code_Aster by the INCLUDE_MATERIAU command. It is a set of files whose name is the character string described above (for example 18 MND5_REF_A) and as extension one of the following character strings: NOMI (for median values), MINI (for minimum values) and MAXI (for minimum values) and (for maximum values),

a « sheet » form, where the user can consult the material characteristics in the form of tables and obtain the origin of the characteristics. This form of the catalog is available on the*Code_Aster website:

`www.code-aster.org`_ < https://www.code-aster.org/> (only on Intranet EDF, in the M Documentation section). Each material sheet is subject to independent validation by the MMC department.

Finally, the INCLUDE_MATERIAU command allows you to use files outside the Materials Catalog and therefore outside the qualified domain.