7.7. Explicitly Computing Derived Quantities

BEGIN DERIVED OUTPUT
  COMPUTE AND STORE VARIABLE =
    <string>derived_quantity_name
END DERIVED OUTPUT

The above command block is used to explicitly compute and store a derived quantity into an internal field. This is useful if the field is needed by an outside capability such as a transfer or error estimation.

For example, to use a derived quantity in a transfer, a DERIVED OUTPUT command block must be used. For instance, to transfer the von Mises stress norm:

BEGIN DERIVED OUTPUT
  COMPUTE AND STORE VARIABLE = von_mises
END DERIVED OUTPUT

Tables Table 10.13.13 through Table 10.13.19 in Section 10 list element variables available for different types of elements. Variables that are only computed at user request are designated with a yes in the Derived column of these tables. These are the quantities that must be listed in a BEGIN DERIVED OUTPUT command block if they are to be transferred during a coupled analysis.