Add a Point Load, Free node to describe concentrated loads with locations specified by coordinates. Such loads do not have to be placed in a geometrical point or in a mesh node. This is particularly useful for the following cases:

Select a Through-thickness location — Top Surface, Midsurface, or Bottom Surface. The default is that the load is applied at the midsurface. The effect of using another surface than the midsurface is that for a tangential load, the distance from the midsurface is used to compute an additional equivalent moment load.

To place the load at another distance from the midsurface, select the Offset check box, and enter a value for the offset, zoffset.

If the material model is Section Stiffness, there may physically not be a well-defined top and bottom surface. If the load is applied at such a surface, the thickness value used to compute the load is taken from the settings in the Thickness and Offset node.

Select a Frame — Material or Spatial that determines how the given coordinates are interpreted in case of a geometrically nonlinear analysis. When Material is selected, the load location on the body is interpreted with respect to the initial configuration. When Spatial is selected, then the load location is given in space fixed coordinates, which usually means that the material point on the body where the load is applied will change with deformation even if the coordinate values are constant.

For each row in the table, enter the data for one load. If material frame input is used, then the location is specified in terms of the material coordinates (X, Y, Z). If spatial frame input is used, then the spatial coordinates (x, y, z) are used. Then, enter the force and moment values, Fxl, Fyl, Fzl, Mxl, Myl, and Mzl. The force and moment vectors are interpreted in the coordinate system selected in the Coordinate System Selection section.

Physics tab with Shell selected:

Physics tab with Plate selected: