Modelling distributed loads without their elements

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:

  1. 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?
  2. 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.

Bump - can anyone suggest how the use of rigid elements would apply here please?

Thank you.

hi, I don’t have an answer for you on this. but it’s a useful feature idea. i’ve talked to the developer of Mecway about adding something similar. Right now, what I do is break the surface mesh up so that nodes are exactly where my loads are.

1 Like