I’m trying to setup a radial force on the edge of a pipe. I’ve created a Cylindrical coordinate system and have got to the attached image. However the force direction needs to point to the centre of the pipe. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Is that a concentrate force load (if yes, keep in mind that it applies the whole specified force to each node) and is the pipe modeled as a solid (if it’s thin, it might be better to use shell elements) ?
Can you share the .pmx file ?
Hi, thank you for your quick reply. I can’t share the pmx file at the moment but the pipe is modelled as a solid and applied a concentrated load. I’d like the load to point to the pipe centre as shown attached.
I can try as shell elements if that would work better. I’d like to apply a certain radial force and check the deflection.
This is recommended if the pipe is thin-walled (let’s say thickness < 1/10 of a typical global dimension such as length or width). Not because of the local CSYS issues but to have good accuracy with less elements. Also, it’s better to avoid applying loads or BCs to edges of solid elements to avoid unrealistic stress concentrations. And it’s actually easier to apply them to shell edges in PrePoMax (you don’t have to use the concentrated force load then).
Back to the issue, make sure that the R axis is oriented properly.
Thank you very much for your help with this.