reaction forces 1

[amwc]

I am analysing a flat plate with UDL (inputted as a pressure)
3.1 x 1.2 m
UDL = 700N/m2
total load = 2600N
I have 62 nodes around the perimeter
my RF is coming out really small - nodal RF = circa 0.2
I am assuming this should be N
0.2x(3.1x2+1.2x2)= 1.72N
where as it should be -
(3.1x1.2x700)/62= 42N

Any ideas where I may be going wrong here?

TIA

 

[FEA way]

How do you measure this reaction force in Abaqus ? As a sum of values obtained from all constrained nodes ?

 

[amwc]

Hi
Thanks
at the moment I am just probing values and summing them?

 

[FEA way]

You can request history output of reaction force for these nodes before the analysis or obtain the history output data from field output in postprocessing. Either way, the next step is to select „Operate on XY Data” and use sum operator on all these XY data objects so that you get the total reaction force.

 

[amwc]

Hi Thanks for the reply

2 more questions please

1- when I plot the graph of reactions I am getting a separate line for each node rather than a total
2 - how do you read a abaqus.rpt file?

Thanks

 

[FEA way]

For each node you will get a line showing reaction force variation in time. To get one curve you have to sum up the reactions for all fixed nodes, as I described before.

Report (rpt) file is a text file so you can open it with any text editor. Even with standard Windows Notepad but I wouldn’t recommend it for this purpose.