Results (Shell Elements)

To access the results for the FE surfaces, go to Results>Graphical Analysis Results and then select the Shell Elements icon from the top right pane. This will change the right hand pane to the FE results area. The layout of the FE results area is shown below.

The results of a finite element analysis include a wide range of force and displacements for each individual node. For the majority of models, the number of numerical results would be too large to directly process effectively. Therefore the results of an Finite Element analysis are presented graphically. The results can be displayed in a contour format, or in the form of section diagrams, using line, rectangular or circular sections. With both the contour and section diagram outputs, the software also provides options to display numerical values for results are various locations within the FE surfaces. The software also provides the option to apply peak smoothing of the FE results, or, alternatively, the section diagrams can be used with an averaging strip width.

It is a good idea to globally 📄 Verifying the results of an FE analysisusing a few hand calculations and checks so as to make sure the results are in the expected ballpark values.