13/01/2023
Isotropic, Orthotropic, and Anisotropic Material
All materials have chemical and physical properties. Physical properties can be either mechanical properties or thermal properties. Materials can be categorized as isotropic, anisotropic or orthotropic based on the measured values for mechanical and thermal properties.
Isotropic Material:
Isotropic refers to a particular substance having uniform mechanical and thermal properties in every direction. In other words, isotropic materials have the same values for thermal and mechanical properties in all direction. Isotropic materials have an infinite number of planes of symmetry. Isotropic material's properties such as Density, Young's Modulus will be only one along the object and not change with direction.
Isotropic material can be either homogeneous (uniform composition throughout) or non-homogeneous. For example, steel is isotropic, but its microscopic structure is non-homogenous.
Orthotropic Material:
Orthotropic refers to not having uniform mechanical and thermal properties in every direction. Orthotropic materials have the same values for thermal and mechanical properties along three perpendicular (x-y-z) direction. Therefore, orthotropic materials have three axes of symmetry. The most common example for an orthotropic material is wood.
Anisotropic Material:
Materials whose mechanical and thermal properties do not follow any regular trend in terms of direction is called anisotropic material. Example: composite materials.
Why we need to know material property in structural engineering?
In a word, without knowing material property we are unable to explain the behavior of material. It is an indispensable part of advanced solid mechanics. Very commonly, we assign material property when we analyze structure in finite element software (ANSYS, ABAQUS).