How do I check the unaveraged stresses?
A2: When an FEM package solves for the stresses, it does so on an element by element basis. Unless otherwise prompted, ANSYS will solve for the stresses at the Guass points and extropolate to the nodes. However, many elements share nodes. So ANSYS averages the nodal stresses computed from each of the adjacent elements. If your mesh is sufficiently small, the averaged stresses will not be very different from the unaveraged stresses—that is to say that stresses at a common node, computed from adjacent elements will not be very different. So if you plot the unaveraged stresses and the stress from one element to the next changes drastically, your mesh is not small enough. You will need to define an element table to plot the unaveraged stresses.
