Visual Load Paths in Elastic Structures Based on Equilibrium Principle

Based on the definition of load paths, an approach was proposed to determine visual load paths in elastic structures. This approach is based on the equilibrium principle and combines the finite element method and the stream tracing algorithm. In order to get continuous visual load paths, commercial software Algor13 is used to get stress fields and finite element meshes and then import these information to another commercial software Techplot9.0 through data files. As an example, load paths in a cantilever beam were plotted by means of this approach and some differences between load paths and principal stress trajectories were compared.Finally, itwas pointed out that ideal load paths in an elastic structure are parallel andwell- distributed straight lines.