Material Types

Most materials are isotropic, that is their properties (such as mass, stiffness and loss factor) are the same in all directions. Therefore when entering new materials into the Materials Editor you should generally choose the "isotropic" option for the material "type".

Exceptions are:

• Corrugated materials such as steel roof sheets
• Concrete slabs cast onto profiled metal pans

These are examples of orthotropic materials (materials having different properties in different directions).

Other non-isotropic materials are laminated materials, where the properties differ through the thickness of the material (laminated glass or metal skinned facade panels).