Documentation
In the Volume Load boundary condition, a distributed load per unit volume is applied on a body (or set of bodies). It is useful to model body loads, such as weight, inertial effects, centrifugal force, electromagnetic loads, and any load that is proportional to the volume (or mass) of the body.
The parameters of the boundary condition are:
The following analysis types support the usage of this boundary condition:
The traction vector is defined by the components of the load:
$$ \vec{t} = (t_x, t_y, t_z) $$
Each component has units of force (\(N\), \(lb.\), etc) per unit of body volume (\(m^3\), \(cubic in.\), etc). The total applied force vector over the assignment set depends on the total volume:
$$ \vec{F} = \int \vec{t} dV $$
Variable volume load values can be specified with the use of the formula or table inputs. The allowed functions are:
Maximum Number of Table Parameters
Due to numerical difficulties, the underlying structural solver (Code_Aster) only supports table function definitions of one or two variables. If you need to define a function of the three spatial coordinates (X, Y, Z), or even combine it with time, you must create an analytical formula for it.
Last updated: October 14th, 2022
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