Hello, I am new to the world of FEA - my apologies if this is somewhat trivial.
I am modelling an aircraft wing. I would like to model only the ‘wingbox’, which is the load-bearing structure highlighted in green in the attached image. However, I currently need to also model the non-load-bearing leading and trailing edge sections. This is because the aerodynamic loads are applied as pressures on each element of the wing, through the use of *DLOAD. Hence, I cannot currently remove the non-green areas from my model, as I will then lose the aerodynamic forces which act on those elements and my overall aerodynamic force will be less than reality.
My questions then are:
- Is it possible to keep the non-green areas in the model for the purpose of applying the pressure loads, but then NOT have them included in the FEA calculation?
- Literature points to the use of so-called ‘rigid elements’, to apply the equivalent loads of the leading and trailing-edge areas onto the 2 beams in the wing, along the length of the wing. Is this the correct method and if so, how would this be done in CCX? - I have read the documentation but cannot seem to wrap my head around this. Any help or examples would be appreciated.
