ESO answers the question "where does the load actually travel in this member?" by iterative analysis rather than intuition. The member is analyzed as a plane-solid finite-element model; the least-stressed elements are removed; the remaining shape is re-analyzed; repeat. Step by step, inefficient material evolves away and the surviving skeleton traces the natural load path.
In AStrutTie, ESO is used as evidence for the strut-and-tie model shape: run ESO, read the emergent topology, then build the truss along it. The lighter-weight alternative is the Stress Flow view — principal stress vectors drawn over the member — which shows direction and relative magnitude without removing material.
- Reveals the load path from the FE stress field — no assumed truss required as a starting point
- Contour and vector output with relative magnitudes of principal stresses
- Available with the plane-solid solver; the topology guides strut/tie placement