Elemental and Nodal Stresses

SX X normal stress
SY Y normal stress
SZ Z normal stress
TXY Shear stress in Y direction on the plane normal to X-direction
TXZ Shear stressin Z direction on the plane normal to X-direction
TYZ Shear stress in Z direction on the plane normal to Y-direction

The following quantities do not use reference geometry:

P1 1st principal stress (largest)
P2 2nd principal stress
P3 3rd principal stress
VON von Mises stress
INT Stress intensity = P1 - P3
ERR Energy Norm Error (available for element stresses only)
CP Contact pressure

Principal Stresses

Stress components depend on the directions in which they are calculated. For certain coordinate axis rotations, shear stresses vanish. The remaining three normal stress components are called principal stresses. The directions associated with principal stresses are called the principal directions.

Von Mises or Equivalent Stresses

Unlike stress components, the von Mises stress has no direction. It is fully defined by magnitude with stress units. The von Mises stress is used by failure criteria to assess failure of ductile materials.

The von Mises stress is computed from the six stress components as follows:

VON = {0.5 [(SX -SY)2 + (SX-SZ)2 + (SY-SZ)2] + 3(TXY2 + TXZ2 + TYZ2)}(1/2)

Or equivalently, from the three principal stresses,

VON = {0.5 [(P1 - P2)2 + (P1 - P3)2 + (P2 - P3)2]}(1/2)