Creating Strain Gauge Sensors

You can create a strain gauge sensor to measure stress or strain at specified locations in the model.

Before you begin: Your simulation must include Stress (S) or Strain (E or LE) data among its field output requests.
See Also
About Strain Gauge Sensors
Importing Strain Gauge Definitions
Exporting Strain Gauge Definitions
  1. From the Sensors section of the action bar, click Create Strain Gauge Sensor .
  2. Optional: Enter a descriptive Name.
  3. Optional: Select Track current step and frame to update gauge values as you switch from one frame to the next in the current analysis case.

    If you disable this option, the strain gauge is valid only for a particular frame. The gauge glyph disappears when you move to a different frame.

  4. Specify the Step and Frame for which the strain gauge returns data.
  5. From the Type options, select one of the following:
    OptionDescription
    Stress Measures the force per unit area (N/m2).
    Strain from strain Measures the strain extrapolated from integration points.
    Strain from displacement Measures the strain derived from the displacement at the nodes.
    Note: This option is not valid for shells.
  6. Optional: Select Specify size to create a strain gauge with customized dimensions.
    1. Specify a length value.
    2. Specify a width value.

    If you do not specify a size, Physics Results Explorer applies the strain gauge to an infinitesimal point with a glyph the size of the nearest element.

  7. Optional: From the Tolerance options, select one of the following:
    OptionDescription
    Automatic Assigns a default tolerance.
    Manual Allows you to specify a value that determines if a point is included or excluded in the results.
  8. Select the points on the model you would like to apply the strain gauges.
    The Strain Gauge Sensor dialog box displays gauge definition values for the Origin, X direction, and Z direction.
  9. Optional: Click to edit the gauge definitions.
    The Robot appears. Drag or rotate the strain gauge sensor to adjust the values for the origin and orientation.
  10. Optional: Click to delete the gauge definitions.
  11. Optional: Select Show glyph to show the strain gauge glyph.
  12. Click OK.

The tree and the Feature Manager display the stress or strain values for the step, load case, or frame. In addition, thetree displays a knowledgeware paramater for each strain gauge value.