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*EL FILE

Keyword type: step

This option is used to save selected element variables averaged at the nodal points in a frd file (extension .frd) for subsequent viewing by CalculiX GraphiX. The following element variables can be selected:

- true (Cauchy) stress (key=S)
- strain (key=E). This is the Lagrangian strain for (hyper)elastic materials and incremental plasticity and the Eulerian strain for deformation plasticity.
- equivalent plastic strain (key=PE)
- the energy density (key=ENER)
- the internal state variables (key=SDV)
- heat flux (key=HFL)

The selected variables are stored for the complete model. Due to the averaging process jumps at material interfaces are smeared out unless you model the materials on both sides of the interface independently and connect the coinciding nodes with MPC's.

The key ENER triggers the calculation of the internal energy. If it is absent no internal energy is calculated. Since in nonlinear calculations the internal energy at any time depends on the accumulated energy at all previous times, the selection of ENER in nonlinear calculations (geometric or material nonlinearities) must be made in the first step.

The first occurrence of an *EL FILE keyword card within a step wipes out all previous element variable selections for file output. If no *EL FILE card is used within a step the selections of the previous step apply. If there is no previous step, no element variables will be stored.

There are two optional parameters: FREQUENCY and GLOBAL. FREQUENCY applies to nonlinear calculations where a step can consist of several increments. Default is FREQUENCY=1, which indicates that the results of all increments will be stored. FREQUENCY=N with N an integer indicates that the results of every Nth increment will be stored. The final results of a step are always stored. If you only want the final results, choose N very big. The value of N applies to *EL FILE, *ELPRINT, *NODE FILE and *NODE PRINT. If the FREQUENCY parameter is used for more than one of these keywords with conflicting values of N, the last value applies to all.

With the parameter GLOBAL you tell the program whether you would like the results in the global rectangular coordinate system or in the local element system. If an *ORIENTATION card is applied to the element at stake, this card defines the local system. If no *ORIENTATION card is applied to the element, the local system coincides with the global rectangular system. Default value for the GLOBAL parameter is GLOBAL=NO, which means that the results are stored in the local system. If you prefer the results in the global system, specify GLOBAL=YES.

First line:

- *EL FILE
- Enter any needed parameters and their values.

Second line:

- Identifying keys for the variables to be printed, separated by kommas.

    Example:

    *EL FILE
    S,PE

requests that the (Cauchy) stresses and the equivalent plastic strain is stored in .frd format for subsequent viewing with CalculiX GraphiX.

Example files: beamt, fullseg, segment1.

Next: *EL PRINT Up: Input deck format Previous: *ELEMENT Contents