6.6 Free Concentrated Loads

A free concentrated load acts as a force or moment on any location of the surface. No FE nodes are generated at the point of load application.

To apply a free concentrated load, a surface must already be defined.

Nodal support forces imported from another model by using the Import Support Reactions as Load function (see Figure 8.13) are handled as free concentrated loads.

In this text box, enter the numbers of the surfaces on which the load acts. You can also select them graphically using .

Starting from the defined Load Position, an imaginary straight line is "set" perpendicular to the projection plane. If the line intersects any of the listed surfaces, the concentrated load is applied at the point of intersection. In this way, it is possible to quickly allocate similar loads to several surfaces.

The load can be projected onto one of the global planes XY, YZ, or XZ. As described above, an imaginary line is generated, starting from the load position and running perpendicular to the projection plane. The load is applied wherever the imaginary line intersects a surface.

The projection plane may not be perpendicular to a surface on which the load acts: There is no clear intersection point with the surface.

Specify whether a single force or concentrated moment is applied. In the dialog text box below, you can enter the numerical value of the load.

The load can act in the direction of the global axes X, Y, Z or the local surface axes x, y, z. To display the axes, use the shortcut menu (see Figure 4.122) or the Display navigator where you select Model → Surfaces → Surface Axis Systems xyz.

Enter the coordinates of the load position into the text boxes. In the dialog box, you can also select the position of the load graphically by using the button.

In the table column or text box, enter the numerical value of the concentrated force or moment.