ANSYS Mechanical uses different approaches for combining stress and strain. The approaches are explained in the “Results Utilities” section of the Mechanical Help System. (Mechanical Applications=>Mechanical User’s Guide=>Using Results=>Results Utilities…) When setting up a Solution Combination, you select the Environment Objects you wish to combine from a drop-down list and optionally specify a coefficient for each environment. The basic formula is: combined result = (coefficient * environment 1 value) + (coefficient * environment 2 value) + … (coefficient * environment n value). If you request a solution combination for a derived stress quantity (e.g., equivalent or principal stress) or total displacement, the combined component results are computed first and then the requested result is derived from the combined components. However, if you request a combined equivalent strain (including elastic, thermal, plastic, creep, total, and total plus thermal equivalent strains), the environment results are combined directly. The combined component results are not used. This procedure is similar to using the MAPDL SUMTYPE,PRIN command.