Mechanical APDL Structural Analysis Guide

GUI: Utility Menu> File> Read Input From

For example, issue /INPUT with the following arguments:

/INPUT,FILE,MCOM!Assumes the default jobname FILE

2. Display results:
   
   
   • Option: Display Deformed Shape
     Command(s):PLDISP
     GUI: Main Menu> General Postproc> Plot Results> Deformed Shape
   
   
   
   

• Option: Contour Displays
  Command(s):PLNSOL or PLESOL
  GUI: Main Menu> General Postproc> Plot Results> Contour Plot> Nodal Solu or Element Solu

Use PLNSOL or PLESOL to contour almost any result item, such as stresses (SX, SY, SZ ...),

strains (EPELX, EPELY, EPELZ ...), and displacements (UX, UY, UZ ...). If you previously issued

the SUMTYPE command, the results of the PLNSOL or PLESOL command are affected by

the particular SUMTYPE command option (SUMTYPE,COMP or SUMTYPE,PRIN) that you

selected.

Use the PLETAB command to contour element table data and PLLS to contour line element

data.

Displacements, stresses, and strains are always in the element coordinate system (RSYS,SOLU).

Derived data, such as stresses and strains, are averaged at the nodes by the PLNSOL command.

This averaging results in "smeared" values at nodes where elements of different materials,

different shell thicknesses, or other discontinuities meet.To avoid the smearing effect, use

selecting (described in Selecting and Components in the Basic Analysis Guide) to select ele-

ments of the same material, same shell thickness, etc. before issuing PLNSOL.

You can view correct membrane results for shells (SHELL, MID) by using KEYOPT(8) = 2 (for

SHELL181,SHELL208,SHELL209,SHELL281, and ELBOW290). These KEYOPTS write the mid-

surface node results directly to the results file, and allow the membrane results to be directly

operated on during squaring operations. The default method of averaging the TOP and BOT

squared values to obtain a MID value can possibly yield incorrect MID values.

• Option: Vector Displays
  Command(s):PLVECT
  GUI: Main Menu> General Postproc> Plot Results> Vector Plot> Predefined

3. List results:
   Command(s):PRNSOL (nodal results),PRESOL (element-by-element results),PRRFOR (reaction
   data),FSUM,NFORCE,PRNLD (nodal element forces sum)
   GUI: Main Menu> General Postproc> List Results> Nodal Solution
   Main Menu> General Postproc> List Results> Element Solution
   Main Menu> General Postproc> List Results> Reaction Solution

Note

The element forces (PRESOL) and reaction forces (PRRFOR) are based on the type

of force requested using ForceType on the combination commands (SRSS,CQC,

Release 15.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information

Spectrum Analysis