topic Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial. in Fusion Support Forum

Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 09:30:27 GMT

So I've been dabbling with the event simulation for a few hours, as I am new to fusion. I made a basic setup and tried to get it solved, but for some reason it pops up with an error about the materials used:

Warning: One or more of the physical materials do not contain nonlinear properties. The material may not behave as expected in the current analysis type. Nonlinear properties are recommended.
Click here to select 'Study Materials' to set a material.

I am confused as to why this error appears. Looking through the 'non-linear' library, there are like 15 different materials available and none of them are a plastic. What is the point of a simulation if you can only use metals? I looked up a tutorial for the event simulation and after setting up the 'SnapFit' tutorial, it says to use Nylon 6/6. For some reason i can even simulate this because of the same error. Why is there a simulation tutorial that cant be simulated?

If this is a problem, help is greatly appreciated 🙂

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

MikeSmell_ADSK — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 16:29:03 GMT

Hi @Anonymous -

Thanks for reaching out with your issue.

I will first point out that what you are seeing, is simply a warning, letting you know that the material you have defined for your Simulation does not include nonlinear properties that will be needed to actually predict nonlinear behavior in your Simulation. This will not prevent you from running your analysis, however, it is important to note that the results you get will assume the material behaves in a linear elastic manner. We do this because we want users to be very aware that nonlinear material information is required to simulate nonlinear behavior and because our nonlinear library is currently, not that large, and will require users to create nonlinear materials specific to their needs.

Using nonlinear materials in Fusion 360 can be done in a few different ways. Let me explain...

1. Nonlinear materials are supported in both Nonlinear Static Stress and Event Simulation.

2. Fusion 360 includes a nonlinear material library titled Fusion 360 Nonlinear Material Library and can be accessed from within the Study Materials command. I think you have already found this, as you noted that this library is currently limited to a small number of metal materials. When looking at the material models that Fusion 360 supports, these fall into the Nonlinear Plastic category, as they include stress and strain data beyond the yield point. Further, the Nonlinear Static and Event Simulation study types will work with various types of nonlinear materials (metals, plastics, rubbers, etc,), however, the user would need to create these materials and add them to the library on their own.

3. Another nonlinear material model that is supported in Fusion 360 is Nonlinear Elasto-Plastic, also known as bi-linear. This material model behaves such that it has a single value for the linear region (Young's Modulus or Elastic Modulus) and a single value for the post-yield region (Tangent Modulus). When using this material model, by default, the Tangent Modulus is assume to be 10% of the Young's Modulus. You will find that this will work for most all of the materials in the Fusion 360 Material library, you simply need to copy that material to your Favorites or Custom Library, activate the Advanced Physical Properties and define the material model as Nonlinear Elasto-Plastic (bi-linear).

4. As mentioned in item 2 above, Fusion 360 also supports a Nonlinear Plastic material model, which allows the user to define the post-yield behavior as a stress vs. strain curve. For these types of materials, users must create a new material in Fusion 360 and define the required properties.

To learn more about the material models that Fusion 360 supports and the process for creating nonlinear materials for use in Nonlinear Static Stress or Event Simulation, please refer to the following section of our Help documentation. Be sure to read the sub-sections on defining material properties.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-011D96B0-9681-41C5-8A53-F6D557E19AB5

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Mike Smell,

Product Manager, Fusion 360 - Simulation

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 20:46:29 GMT

fair enough, thanks for the response

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

oafak — Sun, 23 May 2021 11:34:12 GMT

The weblink attached here is not working. It reported error 404 and said to check for errors on the webpage link. Could please effect a correction.

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

jlecena — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:36:20 GMT

Hi,
Thanks for these helpful information. But could you send the working link for nonlinear materials?
This link is giving us an error.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-011D96B0-9681-41C5-8A53-F6D557E19AB5%C2%A0

Thank you

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

MikeSmell_ADSK — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:38:02 GMT

@jlecena -

Here is the updated link. https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-011D96B0-9681-41C5-8A53-F6D557E19AB5

Thanks,

Mike Smell

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

jlecena — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:46:24 GMT

Hi Mike,
Thank you again!

jlecena

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

dhurt7DEH — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:56:29 GMT

Mike,

i have something along these lines that I need some help with. I want to run simulation running a specific ZYTEL nylon. I am curious if i need to fill in all the boxes for sim to run?

Re: Can not simulate non linear materials? Even in tutorial.

dhurt7DEH — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 21:01:18 GMT

Here is material box I am referring to.