Answer:
In order to specify a uniaxial load transfer for a plate, you can assign orthotropic properties to the surface. This way, you can control the stiffnesses for specific directions so that the loads are mainly transferred in one direction. You have two options.
Orthotropic Thickness for Isotropic Material
- Double-click the surface to open the dialog box for editing the slab.
- In the Thickness with Material section, click the button to the right
, to create a new thickness.
- In the "New Thickness" dialog box, select the Shape Orthotropy thickness type.
- Switch to the "Shape Orthotropy" tab. The Effective Thicknesses orthotropy type is set by default.
- For the uniaxial load transfer, enter the effective thicknesses as orthotropic properties in such a way that the stiffness is very high in the desired main support direction and very low in the other direction.
- To consider the self-weight, you can apply a user-defined fictitious thickness that corresponds to the full surface thickness.
- Click OK to save the thickness.
- Click OK again in the "Edit Surface" dialog box to assign the thickness to the plate.
Orthotropic Material Model for Constant Thickness
- Double-click the surface to open the dialog box for editing the slab.
- In the Thickness with Material section, click the button to the right
, to create a new material.
- In the "New Material" dialog box, select the material from the library as usual. However, change the material model to Orthotropic | Linear Elastic (Surfaces) (1). Also, activate the User-defined material option (2).
- Switch to the "Orthotropic | Linear Elastic (Surfaces)" tab.
- For a uniaxial load transfer, change the modulus of elasticity of the secondary load direction to a very small value. You can also specify very small values for the shear moduli in the secondary support direction. Furthermore, set the Poisson's ratios to zero.
- Click OK to save the material.
- Click OK again in the 'Edit Surface' dialog box to assign the material of the plate.