Rigid arms

A rigid link is a displacement or rotation dependence between a master node and slave nodes.  The dependence depends on the position of both nodes and on the selected type of rigid link.

The result of a rigid link will be that :

1. the deformation of both nodes in the direction of the line connecting both nodes will be identical

2. the orientation of the line connecting both nodes after the calculation depends on the selected type of rigid link

The different types of rigid links :

Rigid – rigid

The rotation of both nodes is identical.  This rotation determines the direction of the connection line between both nodes after the calculation.

Rigid – hinge

The rotation of the connection line between the nodes is identical to the rotation of the master node.

SCIA Engineer allows you to insert two types of rigid arms:

1. standard rigid arm, i.e. node-to-node rigid arm.

2. line rigid arm, i.e. node-to-edge(line) rigid arm.

The latter can be used to link a node to an edge of a nearby slab.

Node-to-edge (line) rigid arm

The master must be always a node.

The slave is always a line (edge of a slab).

All finite element nodes generated on the connected line are connected to the master node.

One master node can connect more several lines.