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Results

How results are displayed

ops-post supports two categories of results, each with different visualization strategies.

Nodal results

Results stored per node (e.g. displacement, reaction forces).

  • Displayed as smooth contours on the shell mid-surface mesh.
  • Values at shared nodes are mapped directly (no averaging needed).
  • Available components depend on the result type:
Result Components
DISPLACEMENT Ux, Uy, Uz, |U|
REACTION_FORCE Fx, Fy, Fz, |F|

Element results

Results stored per element at Gauss point / fiber locations.

Contour mode (non-fiber results):

  • GP values are either averaged across all GPs or extrapolated to corner nodes using the element's extrapolation matrix.
  • The extrapolated values are averaged at shared nodes and displayed as a smooth contour on the mid-surface.
  • You select which fiber layer to display.

GP Spheres mode (non-fiber results):

  • Colored spheres placed at the physical Gauss point location for a selected fiber layer.
  • Uniform sphere size controlled by the Point size slider.

Fiber results (e.g. section.fiber.stress):

  • All Gauss points and all fiber layers are shown simultaneously.
  • Each sphere's radius is proportional to its absolute value.
  • Each sphere's color maps the signed value to the colormap.
  • No averaging, no selection -- every integration point shows its real value.

GP sphere zero mode

When displaying GP spheres, the zero mode controls how the sphere radius scale is anchored:

Mode Behavior Use for
Zero at 0 Radius is zero when the value is zero; positive and negative values grow outward equally Stress, strain (signed quantities that can be positive or negative)
Zero at min Radius is zero at the minimum value; maximum value gets the largest radius Damage, energy, or any quantity that ranges from 0 upward

This setting is in the View tab under Figure controls.

Scale range clamping

Optional min and max fields in the View tab let you clamp the color scale:

  • Values below the min are clamped to the minimum color.
  • Values above the max are clamped to the maximum color.
  • Leave a field empty to use the data's natural range for that end.

This is useful for comparing results across time steps with a fixed color range, or for filtering out outliers.

Von Mises stress

Von Mises equivalent stress is available when an element result has 3 or more stress components.

3 components (plane stress: S11, S22, S12):

$$\sigma_{vm} = \sqrt{\sigma_{11}^2 - \sigma_{11}\sigma_{22} + \sigma_{22}^2 + 3\tau_{12}^2}$$

5 components (full shell: S11, S22, S12, S33, S13):

$$\sigma_{vm} = \sqrt{\sigma_{11}^2 + \sigma_{22}^2 + \sigma_{33}^2 - \sigma_{11}\sigma_{22} - \sigma_{22}\sigma_{33} - \sigma_{11}\sigma_{33} + 3(\tau_{12}^2 + \tau_{13}^2)}$$

Component naming

Component names are read from the HDF5 META/COMPONENTS field. When "Unknown" appears as a component name, ops-post uses generic labels (C0, C1, C2, ...).

Displacement scaling

The displacement scale factor applies to all visualization layers:

  • Shell mid-surface, extrusion, and fiber edges are displaced using nodal displacement values.
  • Gauss point spheres are displaced using shape-function interpolation at each GP's natural coordinates.
  • Beam elements are displaced using their end-node displacements.

A scale factor of 1 shows true displacements. Increase it to exaggerate deformations for visualization.