Distributed Point Load (DPL)

There are occasions where one wishes to apply ‘point’ moments to a continuum finite element model. This is not directly possible since solid elements do not have rotational degrees of freedom. It is, however, possible by applying appropriate nodal forces to a small cloud of nodes surrounding the node of interest, i.e., the one where the point loads are to be applied, in a statically equivalent manner. DPL automates this task for the practising engineer and the installer for this free software application can be downloaded by clicking on the following image.

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DPL needs to solve the following system of equations which is generally underdetermined with a coefficient matrix that may be rank deficient. Conventional matrix decomposition methods fall down with such matrices and so singular value decomposition is used to provide a unique least squares solution to the problem.

system-of-equations

DOI Number: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24559.07842

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