About Shell Edge Loads

This feature lets you specify a force along the edge of shell elements, including surfaces with nonuniform mesh density. For example, this feature could be used to apply a compressive load on the top circular edge of a plastic container.

When you define a shell edge load, you choose the traction type to specify the direction in which the force acts: shear, normal, or transverse.

The loading directions of shear, normal, and transverse edge tractions are determined by the underlying elements. A positive shear edge traction acts in the positive direction of the shell edge as determined by the element connectivity. A positive normal edge traction acts in the plane of the shell in the inward direction. A positive transverse edge traction acts in a sense opposite to the facet normal. The directions of positive shear, normal, and transverse edge tractions are shown in the figure below.

Direction of positive magnitude for each traction type

The labels in the figure are defined as follows:

EDNOR	Normal edge traction
EDTRA	Transverse edge traction
EDSHR	Shear edge traction