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Results at nodes/elements

In CFS it is possible to monitor results at specific nodes and elements. They are defined in the domain section of the input-xml. The coordinate location that needs to be monitored can be specified using nodeList

<domain>
  <nodeList>
    <!-- refer to 'name' in the output definition -->
    <nodes name="node_name">
      <coord x="0.0" y="0.0" z="1.0"/>
    </nodes>
  </nodeList>
</domain>
for a nodal result at these coordinates or elemList for an element result. CFS selects the closest entity to the coordinate location specified. The defined nodes and elements are then referred to under storeResultsin the sequenceStep section.
<storeResults>
  <nodeResult type="mechDisplacement">
    <allRegions/>
    <nodeList>
      <nodes name="node_name" outputIds="txt"/>
    </nodeList>
  </nodeResult> 
  <elemResult type="mechStress">
    <allRegions/>
    <elemList>
      <elems name="element_name"/>
    </elemList>  
  </elemResult>
</storeResults>
This way, the nodal and element groups are also written to the results file and can be accessed in ParaView. Additionally, if outputIds="txt" is specified and the text output is enabled in the fileFormats section (see also below under Results at arbitrary locations), the results are saved as a text file.

Furthermore, a list of nodes/elements can be specified:

<nodes name="nodelist_name">
  <list>
    <freeCoord comp="y" stop="L/4" inc="0.05" start="0"/>
    <fixedCoord comp="x" value="0"/>
  </list>
</nodes>
With this definition, a line of points is created along the y-axis from 0 to L/4 with the given increment and x=0. CFS then again selects the closest nodes (or elements, if a list of elements is defined) to these points which then can be utilized equivalently in storeResults.

Results at arbitrary locations

When results at arbitrary points, i.e. not at nodes or on an element level, are required, sensorArray can be used. In this case, the shape functions are utilized to evaluate the solution at the given location. A prerequisite of using this feature is the enabling of the text output in the fileformats section:

<fileFormats>
  <output>
    <hdf5/>
    <text/>
  </output>
</fileFormats>
The points can be defined either in an external file
<sensorArray type="acouPressure" fileName="basename">
  <coordinateFile fileName="circle.csv"/>
</sensorArray>
where the provided file contains plain x,y,z coordinates that are separated by a single comma, each line representing a single position. Alternatively, it is possible to define a parametric sensor array in the input-xml, e.g.,
<sensorArray type="acouPressure" fileName="basename">
  <parametric>
    <list comp="x" start="0" stop="0" inc="0"/>
    <list comp="y" start="-L" stop="L" inc="0.01"/>
  </parametric>
</sensorArray>
In this case, sensor points are created along a line at x=0 from -L to L in y with the given increment. For 3D Simulations it is also possible to define a z coordinate the same way. The saved output files are named basename-N where N is the number of the time/frequency step. The columns in the files are N_e, x, y, z, Re(v), Im(v), x_e, y_e, z_e, i.e. element id, global coordinates, value (real and imaginary part), local coordinates. Depending on the dimension and result type (real/complex), the according columns are omitted.