Strain along a path

- November 7, 2019 at 8:27 am
  
  TBau
  Subscriber
  
  Dear Community,
  
  I performed a non-linear analysis of an elastomer on Ansys Mechanical (non linear material + large deflection). What I need, is the value of the strain along a particular path inside the body, which I defined with Construction Geometry. Due to the rubber-like properties of the material, the body experience large deformations, so that the final configuration of the path I defined is very far from the initial one. The path AB is a line. A coordinate system is defined with the origin O set in A and Z-axis pointing to B. What I need, is the strain e_z in the direction of the path (tangent n), point by point. I cannot probe the strain refering to the Global Coordinate System, as shown below (picture on the left). So I tried to align before the analysis the z-axis of the elements in the direction of the path, so that I could refer to the Solution Coordinate System. Nevertheless, the local CS of the elements are not supposed to remain tangent to the path after the deformation, so I am not sure if can rely on this solution (pic on the right).
  
  Is there a way to probe the elastic strain along the path along the tangent n point by point?
  
  Thank you!
- November 7, 2019 at 8:01 pm
  
  Sandeep Medikonda
  Ansys Employee
  
  I am not aware of an easy way to do this. Maybe you can create a strategically aligned local coordinate system for each element in the path and use ESYS on each element to realign. Probably set it up in a *Do loop.