Unit deformation of support

This special unit load is available to be defined only within load case of "load type" = "influence lines" or "Influence surfaces", and "type of entity" = "Reaction". See also Influence lines / surfaces work flow.

Icon of the special unit deformation load of a nodal support:

The logic is explained in example below

Example - unit deformaton of support

#A = The load case is set: Influence line, Reaction, Rz

#B = Within this load case (based on schema from this chapter), there will be automatically possible to define ONLY the corresponding type of load, and ONLY one of such load (by this, one exact support along with direction is defined)

#C = Within the load, the "entity" might be checked. This should correspond with the "entity" from the load case setting. The value is automatically considered as "one unit", e.g. in case of influence line for Force reaction Rz, the unit deformation is one meter - this is only informative, not to be altered. In case of influence line for moment support reaction, there would be one radian considered.

#D = As far as by definition of the unit deformation of a support, the exact position of support is defined (along with the corresponding direction), there are no more properties to be set. There is greyed out information that the local coordinate system of the support is being considered for the purpose of subsequent influence line.

#E = Once the unit load is defined, it is not possible to define additional one within the same load case, as ONLY one might be defined. If the unit load within this load case is deleted, it might be defined elsewhere on another nodal support.

Result of the special load case - the influence surface

For the example of the Rz reaction at the given position #F(In the second support from the left), in order to see the influence line, the results of u_z (#G) of this corresponding load case need to be plotted.

In order to maximize the Rz, the load in opposite direction to the z-axis should be applied on positions with the positive result of he u_z (#H), and possibly load with the direction along z-axis applied in area with the negative result of the u_z (#I). This result, the u_z value of the 1D deformations is the influence line for the considered reaction Rz in the defined support.