fea question
 

fea question
in looking at stresses on a plastic material in fea, do you use the von mises or max principal as your stress criteria?

do you mean plastic in the sense of an organic material, or do you mean a material in a plastic condition ? if its the former, and exhibits brittle failure, i would say max. principal. if it exhibits ductile failure, i would say von mises. both types of failure can occur with plastics, but don't ask me which ones occur with which materials and conditions of loading.
jimbo (staff)21 aug 03 16:11
suggest you post in an fea forum. there are several.