FEA Loading hints and tips
There are many ways of applying loading into a model. The objective should be to look carefully at the real world loading and understand its transfer path into the structure. We want to model this as realistically as possible, but at the same time stay conservative where we are uncertain of loading distributions or line of action.
Check out this article by Tony Abbey
And a reminder of the NAFEMS Intro to FEA e-learning class I am teaching, starts on Thursday.
Late registrations are welcome - if the link is closed, email:
e-learning@nafems,org
regards, Tony Abbey
FEA Evangelist , consultant and mentor
7 年That is a good point. If the follower force option is not chosen, the pressure direction vector will not be updated as the mesh distorts in geometric nonlinear analysis.
Innovation Orchestrator at Bio-Micro Systems Center (TNO)
7 年I know some software give option of follow force. If you switch it on the pressure/face load direction will follow the face (rotates with face rotation) but if you switch it of it keeps its initial direction regardless of face rotation. In the later, pressure/face load will be at an angle and only the component normal to the face is considered.
FEA Evangelist , consultant and mentor
7 年I was asked to clarify Pressure and Traction in the article. Pressure is a scalar and is always normal to the surface. So all we need to know is F (total force) and A. P=F/A. Traction is also applied to a surface, but it is at any angle. For drag it is at 90 degrees. So we need to know F, A and loading angle. regards, Tony