Mass and load for vertical beam

Kefeng · Post by **Kefeng** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 8:20 pm

Hi all,

After reading the following blog post, I have been wondering how to correctly prescribe mass and load for a vertical pipe.

In my model, pipes are modeled using force beam elements with a mass of rho * A (rho being the density and A the cross-sectional area). As I understand, I also have to define the load individually for each beam element. However, I am not sure how to properly account for the column weight (weight of all beams above considered beam).

Is applying a uniform load along local X axis enough? e.g.

Code: Select all

weight = rho * A * g
ops.eleLoad(-ele, 1, -type, -beamUniform, 0.0, 0.0, -weight)

Should the weight be depth dependent?

I am carrying a transient analysis so I need all the masses to be correctly defined.

Thanks!