Applying concentrated load

[sithlord382]

Hi
I am a 3rd yr civil student and am running an experiment on how cracks behave in Abaqus. But i am stuck on the first part of my experiment, I am simulating a soil particle in the shape of a cube. I created a standard 3D cube shape and i want to apply a concentrated/point load to the top face of the cube at the middle. How can i make a node in the middle of this face active so that it will allow me to have a load contact the cube at that point?
Also is it possible to apply a concentrated load onto 1 single node on the top surface of the cube, or do i have to create a small surface for where the load will be applied to?
At the moment i have created my cube part, then in the Interaction module i created a datum point at the centre of the top surface (made that a reference point 1) then i created a datum plane that is perpendicular to the top surface and created another datum point (made that reference point 2) at the centre of the new plane. I then constraint the two points by selecting coupling, picking RP2, then node region, and selected RP1. In the next box i selected kinematic option (didnt change anything else in that menu). Then i applied a load through RP2. When i run the job it keeps aborting.

I dont understand how to get around this and would appreciate any help possible

Thanks in advance
S

 

[IceBreakerSours]

What does the error say? You should get in the habit of reading what the warning/error messages say in the .DAT/.MSG files.

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[IceBreakerSours]

By the way, student posting is discouraged in these forums. Read the FAQs.

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[Mustaine3]

A CF can be applied on geometric points or nodes. If you need to generate geometric points on your instances, you can use partitioning (Tools -> Partition).

 

[sithlord382]

thanks guys for the rapid replies, I managed to create a partition and applied the load to that point and got results that i was expecting.