When strains are transferred to define the state of a structure at the beginning of a structural analysis, an Imported Initial Strain object can be inserted to represent the transfer. The following supported strain types can be chosen using Sub Type property in the details of the Imported Initial Strain object:
Elastic Strain
Plastic Strain
Equivalent Plastic Strain
You can import values for all six components of the symmetric strain tensor (XX, YY, ZZ, XY, YZ and ZX). For more information, see the External Data Import section.
This imported load provides the Apply To property that enables you to map and apply the load to either the centroids of the or to the of the elements for the selected bodies. When the Apply To property is set to , the imported initial strain can also be scoped to node-based Named Selections.
For applicable transfers or for specific steps to transfer data, see the Imported Boundary Conditions section.
Note:
Imported Initial Strain can only be applied at the start of the first step.
Activation/Deactivation of loads is not available for Imported Strain load.
Imported elastic strain values are not supported for bodies which have the following material types assigned:
Materials with kinematic hardening properties
Gasket materials
Hyperelastic materials
Imported plastic strain values are not supported for bodies which have the following material types assigned:
Porous media
Rate-dependent plasticity
Viscoplasticity
For shell bodies, you have the option to import strain on All, Top, Middle, or Bottom shell face(s).
For shells with layered sections, All is the only supported option for importing strain on shell faces.
Initial strain can only be applied to a shell body with a default coordinate system. If a coordinate system is specified either directly through the Coordinate System property on the body or indirectly through the Coordinate System property on Layered Section, then the object becomes invalid and strain cannot be imported.
This imported loading condition supports the Vector Display options.
Important: Mechanical maps every individual tensor by direct interpolation of individual components. This is numerically the simplest method but is physically inconsistent especially in nonlinear solid mechanics applications. For more information, see the Recommendations and Guidelines for Mapping of Initial Stress and Strain Data section.