Nodal Averaging Options

To compute nodal values from element nodes, VMoveCAE uses the averaging technique as shown in the figure.

Computing Nodal Averages from Elemental Node

VMoveCAE follows the “average and derive” principle for computing the derived values of vector, 6-DOF and tensor results. All the components are first computed at the nodes by averaging the element nodal values. These average nodal values are used to define the derived quantities.

Disabling Nodal Averaging Across Materials

This option is valid for Ansys RST, RTH and Abaqus ODB files only.

During the nodal value computation, Ansys workbench/Abaqus Viewer only uses the elements corresponding to the same material in the averaging process. This results in different result values for different materials for each node at an interface between materials.

Unlike Ansys workbench/Abaqus viewer, VMoveCAE considers the nodes across materials by default while computing the nodal values from elemental or element location values. This results in faster translation and smaller file sizes. However, this also may result in the nodal average values and their ranges that differ from Ansys workbench/Abaqus viewer.

Users can alter this default setting in VMoveCAE through the GUI or in batch mode.

VMoveCAE GUI

Start VMoveCAE and load an input file.

Go to Settings->Preferences to open the Preferences dialog box. Check No averaging across materials as shown below.

As a result of this setting, VMoveCAE preserves the discontinuities of values across the materials during the elemental to nodal and element nodal to nodal averaging processes.

Batch Mode

The command to disable nodal averaging across materials in batch mode is --no-averaging-across-materials. The below example shows how to preserve material discontinuities while reading the geometry and results from file.rst and named components from ds.dat and translating them into file.cax.

VMoveCAEBatch.exe --ansys-input-commands="ds.dat" --no-averaging-across-materials file.rst file.cax