Dimensional Modeling of Indian Materials Database

Indian Materials Database (IMDB) is a national project aiming to develop a database through compilation of materials property data available in different laboratories in India. The database contains data on mechanical, corrosion, nondestructive evaluation, thermal and optical properties of a wide variety of materials. Selecting the appropriate data modeling technique is crucial for the successful deployment of such a database. Dimensional modeling is a logical design technique to present data in a standard, intuitive framework that allows for high-performance access. Dimensional modeling of data results in a "Star Schema", where the data constitutes a central fact table surrounded by dimension tables. This paper discusses the model and architecture of the material database using a "Snowflake Schema", which is a variation of "Star Schema", where some of the dimensions are normalized into multiple related tables. The database contains a central fact table linked to multiple dimensions namely, 1) Materials 2) Properties of materials 3) Details of experiments conducted on materials and 4) Source from which data is obtained. KeywordsModels, Material Database, Data warehousing,