Learning Forum

[peteroznewman]

nHere is a page in the ANSYS Help where I learned the definition of ELEMENTAL DIFFERENCE.nAveraged vs. Unaveraged Contour Results (ansys.com)nNodal Difference: Computes the maximum difference between the unaveraged computed result (for example, equivalent stress) for all elements that share a particular node.nElemental Difference: Computes the maximum difference between the unaveraged computed result (for example, equivalent stress) for all nodes in an element, including midside nodes.nThe reason you are plotting stress is to find out how close to yield the material has come. Often, the area of high stress is also the area of high stress gradients. The goal is to get an accurate estimate of the highest stress in the model. Large elements can have a much larger error to the true solution than small elements in the area around the maximum stress where the stress gradient is also high. Large elements in an area of low stress gradient will have smaller errors, and low stress gradient is often in low stress areas which are of no concern, so it makes sense to spend resources (add elements) where the error is large and there is a high interest in accuracy due to it being the maximum stress in the model.n