From the menu bar in the Edit Material dialog box, select .
(For information on displaying the Edit Material dialog box, see Creating or editing a material.)
In the Reference temperature field, enter a value for reference temperature if the coefficient of thermal expansion is a function of temperature or field variables
Toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define the expansion coefficient as a function of temperature.
A column labeled Temp appears in the Data table.
Click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables on which the expansion coefficient depends.
Enter the following data in the Data table:
- Expansion Coeff
Thermal expansion coefficient, . (Units of −1.)
- Temp
Temperature.
- Field n
Predefined field variables.
For detailed information on how to enter data, see Entering tabular data.
Click OK to close the Edit Material dialog box. Alternatively, you can select another material behavior to define from the menus in the Edit Material dialog box (see Browsing and modifying material behaviors, for more information).