Stress Averaging for Shells |
  
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Stress Averaging for Shells |
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The option to control stress averaging for shells is located in the Analysis Options dialog, which can be opened by clicking Analysis > Analysis Options.
For each finite element (shell or brick), stresses are calculated at each node. If two elements share a node, the stresses at the node are different for each of these two elements. To make the results more accurate and the contours smoother, stresses can be averaged at nodes for adjacent shells.
This setting controls the way shell stresses are calculated at nodes. There are three options:
No stress averaging: Stresses at each node are output as calculated, with no averaging or smoothing.
Stress averaging for all adjacent elements: Stresses at each node are calculated by averaging nodal stresses of the elements that share the same node and have the local coordinate system parallel to the global coordinate system. With this option, if no elements have local axes coordinated with global axes, this option will result in no stress averaging.
Stress averaging based on local coordinate system: Stresses at each node are calculated by averaging nodal stresses of the elements that share the same node and have the same local coordinate system.
