Averaged and Unaveraged Element Results Written at Nodes

Averaged and Unaveraged element results written at nodes

Element data written at nodes has to be averaged. All elements attached to that node which could legitimately contribute the required data component are included, and the unweighted average is used. If elements are blanked or volume-clipped they are only excluded if the MATERIAL_IGNORED or CLIPPING_IGNORED s witches respectively are on.

Problems can arise in the following situations:

On material boundaries: For the node there is no "parent" element to give a definitive material number, as there is when plotting, so averaging will always take place across dissimilar materials. At element type junctions: For the node there is no "parent" element type. So where, for example, a node is common to a solid and a shell, the results will be averaged across the two types.

Therefore you should take care when using WRITE to extract element data averaged at nodes.

Whenever WRITE tabulates data it prefaces it with its full data component name and, for nodal results, it also states whether the figures are "averaged" or "unaveraged".