Hi,
How do I extract design forces for slab modelled using plate elements?
Thanks,
Dennis
There are easy tools to get the design forces for plates from the post processing mode.
You can get the plate forces directly from the Plate Center Stress table as shown in the picture below. The Shear Membrane and Bending tab contains forces for all elements and for all load cases. The Summary tab will give you the maximum and minimum considering all load cases and all plates and will report the plate number with the associated load case number. In case you are using triangular plates for which local axes will be oriented in all different directions, you can get the moments using the Global Moments tab. The contour plot of the stresses can also be viewed as shown. To do that right click on the graphics screen and choose Labels to get to the Diagrams dialog box and choose Plate Stress Contour.
In addition you can also get a table of forces generated for a selected set of plates by selecting the plates and choosing Report > Plate results > Plate Stresses from the top menu.
Yes Mx and My are out of plane moments but just be mindful of the fact that Mx is NOT about the local X axis ( as is the case for beams ). The Mx moment for plate is actually about the local Y axis of the plate. Similarly the local My for plates is moment about local X of the plate. Mxy represent the twisting moment.
Please refer to the section 1.6.1 of the technical reference manual ( titled Plate and Shell Element ) where these are explained in detail with diagrams.