• Registered: 2015-08-13
  • Posts: 8

Topic: Wrongly reported reactions

Hello ! Just a quick note to make sure if I correctly understood paragraph 2.1.18 of the troubleshooting manual.

I am applying a prescribed displacement on a joint that belongs to 2 adjacent macroelements (ATENA 3D Engineering v.5.1.2d.11514) and I am monitoring the reaction force on the same macroelement where that displacement is applied.

Is it possible that a fraction of the total reaction is lost to the adjacent macroelement ? I have the impression that I should put monitors to both macroelements in order to sum up the correct reaction value. Is that true ?

I am asking because I am not sure about the word 'region' in the troubleshooting manual (instead of 'macroelement'). Moreover it says that this issue is fixed already in a very old version (1.2.2).

Thanks a very lot in advance.

Quote Post 1

  • dpryl
  • CC software developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-07-13
  • Posts: 1,107

Re: Wrongly reported reactions

Hello, it is generally NOT recommended to do this - what is your reason for dividing the loaded element into multiple volumes/macroelements?

The typical problematic results are (were?) that you get 0 in your monitor because the load gets effectively applied to an-/some other of the 2 (or more) identical joints. If you suspect your reaction gets split between/among the identical joints, please send us your model such that we can check it and/or recommend a solution.

dpryl's Website

Quote Post 2

  • Registered: 2015-08-13
  • Posts: 8

Re: Wrongly reported reactions

Thanks a lot for your reply. Actually I found out that I can include an isolated node inside a macroelement and apply loading, provided that meshing crosses this extra node.

However, the above can't be done if you want to apply loading or restraints on a line contained in the middle of a macroelement, without losing the ability to mesh with bricks. The only solution in that case is to split the macroelement in two distinct ones.

I will send you some models that yield different reactions when loading is applied on differ points between macroelements

Thanks a lot again

Quote Post 3