2 docs tagged with "rigid constraints"

At times there are very stiff sections in a model and generally it is not good to model these simply by creating very stiff elements as this can lead to ill-conditioning problems. It is better to replace the elements in these regions with link elements or rigid constraints. The action of link elements and rigid constraints is substantially the same, the main difference being that a rigid constraint can include many nodes while a link element can only include two nodes, but has some additional linkage options.

Rigid constraints define sets of nodes constrained to move as a rigid body. These are commonly use to model rigid diaphragms, where typically the nodes are rigid in the x-y plane but not in the z direction.