Thanks for that information & link. I note you consider this a 2d problem but that’s just an artifact of the way that @alabrazi presented his problem. Mine is ultimately a 3D problem as the columns are legs to a structure.
There is a more general point here - the representation of failure modes in SimScale. If I set up a simple bending of beam example and I increase the load the only indication I have of failure of the beam is when the displacement becomes non-linear. Or am I missing something?