The stresses at each point along the stress line are obtained by interpolating the unique nodal stress values using the averaging criteria defined in the Result Options dialog box (for more information on specifying the averaging criteria, see “Controlling result averaging,” Section 24.5.6). ABAQUS/CAE uses a local coordinate system that is defined by the stress line to obtain the stress results. The local x-axis lies along the stress line; it originates at the first point on the stress line and is defined by the vector connecting the first and second points on the stress line. The local y- and z-axes are determined as follows:

The stresses are then linearized. The stress linearization calculations differ for nonaxisymmetric and axisymmetric models. For more information on these calculations, see “Stress linearization,” Section 2.17.1 of the ABAQUS Theory Manual.

ABAQUS displays the resulting linearized stresses in the form of an X–Y plot. Three separate curves are presented for each stress component representing the following:

In addition, the linearized stress output for each stress component and the stress invariant calculations for the linearized stresses are written to a report file.