I'd be REALLY careful pursuing this approach. I tried it with
displacements on a flat plate 20 years ago with reasonable results
because the system sought equilibrium based on those enforced
locations. A customer of mine tried it with thermocouple data in a
static analysis with horrible results. A static analysis will not
find the thermal equilibrium based on local temps. With applied
strains, you are somewhere in the middle of these and I wouldn't
necessarily expect a unique solution from local strain input.
I don't recall a "strain gage" in all my years of using Nastran
(although its been a couple) My guess though is this isn't a BC but
a Sensor of sorts to report local strains.
Your best bet is to make your best BC estimates and adjust within
reasons until your strains match. There's a COSMOS Companion with
some tips for doing this in the archive at
www.solidworks.com/Companion
Is another way of stating the question "Can one make strain a boundary condition?" If so, I don't think so. But I have to really think about it. I know geostar has some features that remind me of this but not in this solver.
I'd be REALLY careful pursuing this approach. I tried it with displacements on a flat plate 20 years ago with reasonable results because the system sought equilibrium based on those enforced locations. A customer of mine tried it with thermocouple data in a static analysis with horrible results. A static analysis will not find the thermal equilibrium based on local temps. With applied strains, you are somewhere in the middle of these and I wouldn't necessarily expect a unique solution from local strain input.