• Digimat-MF is used as a “numerical material lab machine” to predict the thermo mechanical properties (E, CTE, Stress-strain curve,…) of a hard metal. New tools have been developed especially for this purpose :

                -  Second order homogenization methods allow to better take into account the                            important stress and strain field variations one can observe in a hard metals;
                -  Elasto plasticity with damage allows to model damage in the binder phase.

• Digimat-FE can also be used as a “numerical material lab machine” to get more precise information on the stress and strain fields inside the material. It can generate statistically representative microstructures of cemented carbides, with accurate grain shape, size (grain size distribution possible). In case no suitable inclusion shape is available in Digimat-FE, user defined inclusion shape can be imported from geometry files.

• Microstructure generated with Digimat-FE can be exported very easily to third party FE codes (not only the microstructure gets exported, but also the material definition and assignements, the loadings and boundary conditions definitions), allowing , to simulate in FE code. Since detailed stress and strain fields are available, one can apply Weibull-type failure criterion, well suited for brittle materials like Tungsten Carbide.

• After your FE analysis has completed, Digimat-FE provides some dedicated post-processing tools to easily and quickly visualize statistical information about stress or strain fields (like average, variance, statistical distribution).

• Digimat-FE allows a user friendly generation and analysis of cemented carbide RVEs and serve as a platform for virtual material development to enhance the interpretation of simulation results, Michael Magin, Application Engineer Manager, Ceratizit Luxembourg.