Beam Loading

Beam Loading

Beam loading applies to beam, bar, tie and strut elements and to a more limited extent to cable elements. There are a number of ways in which loads can be applied but in all cases the loading is resolved during the solution into an equivalent set of nodal forces and moments. When a position along an element is required this may be specified as an actual distance (e.g. 2.46) or as a percentage (25%).

The most commonly used option is the beam loads which applies loads at specified positions along the elements.

Prestress allows prestress loads to be applied to elements. Beam distortions are a different and little used option which allows an element to have a displacement discontinuity along the element. This is only valid for linear elements. The final load type for beam element is thermal where temperature or temperature gradients can be applied to the elements.

Load case and title

The loading is stored by case number. However it is good practice to give load cases names. The load title gives access to the Load Case Titles wizard to simplify this procedure. The wizard is opened for the currently displayed load case.