This article aims to explain some of the general terms found in the FEA text and table reports. Text reports can be accessed via the FEA panel and table reports can be accessed through the custom reports.
General Terms
In the table below is general terminology that is used in both the text and table reports.
Terminology | Meaning |
Ultimate | The maximum allowable value without applying the Strength Reduction Factors |
Limit | The maximum allowable value after applying the Strength Reduction Factors |
Utilization | The structural value being calculated divided by the Limit |
General Terms Table Reports
In the table below is terminology that will appear in the FEA reports.
Terminology | Meaning |
Worst | This is a summary report that is reporting on the worst result |
Assessment | This is a report at the most fundamental level (often the node level) |
Nominal | This is the load without applying load factors for that particular environment |
Factored | This is the load after applying the load factors for that particular environment |
Solve | This is often the environment along with the wind direction |
Norm | The vector sum of the X, Y, Z components |
X, Y, Z | Individual components of a calculated engineering quantity to some reference coordinate system. |
Quantity | The calculated engineering quantity |
World Aligned | World coordinate system: Easting = X Northing = Y |
Structure Aligned | Aligned to structure coordinate system. X is generally pointing in the longitudinal direction and Y is generally pointing in the transverse direction |
Factored Aligned | These are pointing in the direction of the conductors so X = longitudinal and Y = transverse |
Text Reports - Coordinate System
There are a number of FEA results in text reports that can be found in the FEA panel. The displacement, tension and point forces are in the world coordinate system (Easting = X Northing = Y) and the moments are in their frame's local coordinate system (where the Z value is the torsion around the frames Z axis).
FEA Reports
Various results can be viewed by the FEA reports. Below is an example how these FEA reports can be accessed.
List of FEA Reports
There are two broad categories of FEA reports
Conductor Reports (StrainSectionReports)
Component Reports (PoleReports)
There are various levels that can be drilled down into. The higher levels will often show summary results and the lower level reports will end at the NodeReports which show the results at each FEA node.
There are 5 main categories for the components
Poles, Crossarms and Beam Post Insulators are modelled as frames and segmented into multiple sections. These are found in BeamReports
Braces are modelled as a truss and are found in BraceReports
Post, Pin and Clamp insulators are modelled as rigid elements and are found in StiffInsulatorReports
Suspension and Strain Insulators are modelled as cable elements and are found in CableInsulatorReports
Ground and Aerial Stays (sections marked as Aerial stay) are modelled as cable elements and are found in StayCableReports
Conductor FEA Reports
Report | Purpose |
FeaReports |
|
FeaReports -> StrainSectionReports |
|
FeaReports -> StrainSectionReports -> SpanReports | This reports on the maximum tension in a span. Note this will combine the cables and environments and report on the worst case |
FeaReports -> StrainSectionReports -> SpanReports -> CableReports | This reports on the maximum tension for individual cables within a span per environment |
FeaReports -> StrainSectionReports -> SpanReports -> CableReports -> NodeReports |
|
Components FEA Reports
Report | Purpose |
FeaReports |
|
FeaReports -> PoleReports | Shows worst element utilisation on the structure |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> PointForces | Shows the forces at the cable attachment points for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> BeamReports | Note beams include both the pole and cross arms (and post insulators modelled as a beam). This is reporting on the beam results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> BeamReports -> SectionReports | This is reporting on the individual sections within the beam (segmentation) for each environment. |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> BeamReports -> SectionReports -> NodeReports | This is reporting on each node (start and end) for each of the individual sections within the beam (segmentation) for each environment. |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> BraceReports | This is reporting on the brace results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> BraceReports -> NodeReports | This is reporting on the start and end of each brace for each environment (braces are made up of a single truss element) |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> StiffInsulatorReports | This is reporting on the stiff insulators (post and pin) results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> StiffInsulatorReports -> NodeReports | This is reporting on the stiff insulators (post, pin and clamp) start and end node results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> CableInsulatorReports | This is reporting on the cable insulators (suspension and strain) results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> CableInsulatorReports ->NodeReports | This is reporting on the cable insulators (suspension and strain) start and end node results for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> StayCableReports | This reports on ground and aerial stays for each environment |
FeaReports -> PoleReports -> StayCableReports -> NodeReports | This reports on start and end of ground and aerial stays for each environment |