The variation is the relative difference at a node with respect to all nodes in the selected components. The formula is described as follows:
Variation percentage at a node = (Difference at that node/Difference in all nodes from the selected components) x 100
In the example shown in Nodal Averaging of Elemental Results, the nodal variation (%) of tensor component xx at node 400 is:
You can activate Use variation (%) in the Contour and Iso panels and select a specific variation percentage to control the nodal averaging calculation.
If Use variation (%) is off, the average results are calculated for all nodes. In this case, the results are node bound, meaning you can query results at a node from the Query panel.
If Use variation (%) is on, the average results are calculated for only some nodes, depending on the variation (%) you have defined. If the variation percentage is below the designated value at a node, nodal average at that node is calculated. Otherwise, corresponding element corner results at that node are used for contour plotting. 100% variation indicates all nodes will have average results; 0% variation indicates no nodes will have average results. In this case, the results are element bound, meaning you can only query results at an element from the Query panel.
See also