PDE Toolbox Structural mechanics Static bending of a beam with material properties varying inside the beam

Hi, I would like to know if it is possible to study with the PDE toolbox the static bending of an orthotropic beam (4 point bending), but with a variation of the material properties (modulus of elasticity, shear modulus...) inside the object? Is it possible to give to each element of the mesh different values of the material properties? Thank you in advance for your answer Best regards Loic

Answer 1

[Precise Simulation]

Perhaps you can modify this Matlab Euler-Bernoulli FEM model for 4 point bending. At least you can easily vary the material parameters along the length of the beam just by entering Matlab string expressions like for example '4*sin(x)*u-ux^2'.

Answer 2

[Svetlana Pease]

Dear Loic,

The simplified interface that lets you specify material properties directly, only supports isotropic models.

However, the approach, where you specify PDE coefficients and boundary conditions in the following form, lets you use function handles for non-constant coefficients. See:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/c-coefficient-for-systems-for-specifycoefficients.html

Hope this helps!

Svetlana