Visualizing Von Mises Stresses

This task shows how to generate von Mises images on part geometries.

Von Mises Stress images are used to visualize Von Mises Stress field patterns, which represent a scalar field quantity obtained from the volume distortion energy density and used to measure the state of stress. 
Von Mises Stress Image objects belong to Static Case Solution objects sets.

The volume distortion energy density is often used in conjunction with the material yield stress value to  check part structural integrity according to the Von Mises criterion. For a sound structural design, the maximum value of the Von Mises stress should be less than this yield value.

Open the sample22.CATAnalysis document from the samples directory.

  • Select View > Render Style > Customize View and make sure the Materials option is active in the Custom View Modes dialog box.
  • Compute the solution.
    To do this, click Compute .
  1. Click Von Mises Stress in the Image toolbar.

    The Von Mises stress image is displayed, and a Von Mises Stress (nodal value).1 image appears in the specification tree under the active static case solution.

    The Von Mises stress distribution on the part is visualized in Iso-value mode, along with a color palette.

    You can visualize the Von Mises stress image in different ways by modifying the custom view modes. To do this, select View > Render Style > Customize View.

  2. When the mouse cursor is passing over finite elements of the mesh, the values of the Von Mises stress are visualized at each of their nodes.

  3. Select a finite element to obtain a steady display.

  4. Double-click the Von Mises Stress Image object in the specification tree to edit the image. 

    The Image Edition dialog box appears.
    For more details, refer to Image Edition.

  5. Click OK in the Image Edition dialog box.

    An image corresponding to your settings is visualized.

With the ELFINI Structural Analysis product, you can generate reports on this image.
To know more, refer to Generating Reports.