Add Stress Flow Line

A stress flow line indicates the orientation of the major in-plane principal stress Sigma 1 along a continuous line.

Stress flow lines can be added individually with the Add Stress Flow Line option, or multiple stress flow lines can be simultaneously generated with the Add Multiple Stress Flow Lines option.

To add individual stress flow lines:

1. Select Add Stress Flow Line from the Stress Flow sub-menu of the Analysis menu.
2. You will see a dialog which allows you to configure the following options:
3. • Colour - you can choose a colour for the Flow Line
   • Visibility - for a multi-stage model, you can choose to display the Flow Line at All Stages (Visibility = All Stages) or only for the currently viewed stage (Visibility = Only for this Stage)
   • Step Size - a flow line is generated by determining the principal stress orientation at a point and traveling an increment of distance along this path, to determine the next point. This process is repeated until the Flow Line reaches the external boundary or is otherwise terminated. The Default Step Size option will generate the Flow Line using a default increment of distance between points (equal to 1/100 of the model extents). The Custom Step Size option will generate the Flow Line with a user-defined increment of distance between points.
   • Interpolation Method - determines the method used to interpolate the flow line coordinates from the nodal stress data.
4. You will be prompted to enter a starting location for the Flow Line. You can do this graphically with the mouse, or enter an x,y coordinate pair in the prompt line.
5. Enter the starting point, and the Stress Flow Line will be generated.
6. You can add as many stress flow lines as you wish, by repeating Step 4.
7. When you are finished adding flow lines, press Escape, or right click and select Cancel, to exit the Add Stress Flow Line option.