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Defining Loads on surfaces and elements

My model has a tetramesh mesh of a cylindrical shape. I want to apply loads on the top and bottom faces of the cylinder. I made the surfaces for the top and bottom faces in the same component but those surfaces were not used to generate the mesh. So I was wondering if I apply the loads to the surface, would they be applied to the mesh or not.

If I apply the loads by selecting the elements of the top and bottom faces, do I just need to define the total pressure and it will be distributed between the elements accordingly? Do I need to take care of the edge elements separately so as to maintain a uniform load distribution.

Also, for analysis I need to delete the 2d elements which were use to generate the 3d tetramesh. I to apply the loads I would need the 2d elements as as I need to apply loads only on the surface. How can this be resolved?

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Altair Forum User

Harsh,

1. In FEM, you need to apply the loads & BCs on Elements. You can simply apply the loads on Direct top & bottom Face Elements. Select any one element from top & bottom area and select them by 'Face Option' ( no need to pick it manually ).

2. The application of load depends upon your case & requirement.

a. If you are planning to apply load 'Normal to Elements', then Pressure will suit your purpose & it will distribute same value of magnitude on each element.

b. If you are planning to apply the load on nodes then, Force will suit the purpose.

In case of Pressure, application you need to take care of Elements on edges to maintain the direction & magnitude with proper load application method

3. In order to delete 2D elements, you can use Delete > Elements > by configuration > ( Select 'Quad / Tria' seperately ). In case, you want to apply the loads on faces, then use those elements instead of Surfaces.

If you can share the model through my drop-box , i will go through the same & suggest you the changes as per your requirements.

Altair Forum User

Praniket, thank you very much for your reply. Actually, in my model I have 2D quad elements and I use them to generate a tetramesh and then delete all the 2D elements so as to assign the PSOLID property to my component. Now if I select the elements on the top and bottom faces, I get the 3D elements and would have to apply the pressure on them. I am not sure if that would work the same way as applying the pressure on the 2D elements.

Also, would the pressure be distributed equally among all the elements or will it be according to the element size?

I tried applying force on the nodes as a workaround. Will the force be distributed according to the element size? Also, the edge elements would experience lesser force if I apply force to all the elements simultaneously. Is there a way around that?

Basically I want uniform distribution of the force on the surface with different sized elements. I can use force or pressure, whichever will help to achieve this.