Element loads - eesd-epfl/OpenSees GitHub Wiki
Distributed element loads can be applied to the element through the standard command of OpenSees, as for beam elements, as:
eleLoad -ele $eTag1 <$eTag2 ....> -type -beamUniform $qy $qz $qx
eleLoad -range $eTag1 $eTagEnd -type -beamUniform $qy $qz $qx
Where:
| eTag1, eTag2, eTagEnd | element tags |
| -ele | list of elements to which the load is applied |
| -range | range of elements to apply the load to |
| qy, qz, qx | distributed load per unit length, expressed with reference to the local coordinate system (x is the axis of the macroelement, z the OOP direction). Pay attention to the ordering of the axes (Ylocal, Zlocal, Xlocal) |
With a similar syntax, also a mass-proportional load can be applied as a distributed load along the axis of the element. The mass of the element (passed through the flags -density or -mass) is considered to compute the self weight. The direction and intensity of the gravity vector is passed as input.
eleLoad -ele $eTag1 <$eTag2 ....> -type -selfWeight $gx $gy $gz
eleLoad -range $eTag1 $eTagEnd -type -selfWeight $gx $gy $gz
If the element is defined as "gable", a triangular distribution of the self weight is applied. When this command is used, the exact compression is applied to all sections of the element.
The same command can be used in horizontal direction to perform easily a pushover analysis with a rectangular force pattern.