Features > Load Sets > Load Set Factors

Load Set Factors

User-defined load set factors are used to scale up (or down) the applied load according to design specifications.

Load Set Factors

Limit and ultimate load set factors can be defined for each load set in the Load Set form. See Editing Load Sets.

Limit Factor Applies to the mechanical portion of the load for limit margins of safety.
Ultimate Factor Applies to the mechanical portion of the load for ultimate margins of safety.

Component Factors

The following component load factors are used with the load set factors. These factor are defined per-component on the FEA Loads tab. Default factors are defined in the Analysis Default form. See Analysis Defaults.

Mechanical Limit Applies to mechanical loads for limit margins of safety.
Mechanical Ultimate Applies to mechanical loads for ultimate margins of safety.
Thermal Hurt/Help Applies to thermal loads for both limit and ultimate margins of safety.

Thermal hurt and help factors are applied simultaneously to both the limit and ultimate margins of safety. The worst case is returned. Typically, the thermal hurt factor is 1.0 and the thermal help factor is 0.8. This ensures that the superimposed thermal loads will never increase the margins of safety.

Summary

M is the mechanical load, and T is the thermal load.

The factored limit load is the critical case of:

M(Load Set Mechanical Limit)(Component Mechanical Limit) + T(Thermal Hurt)

M(Load Set Mechanical Limit)(Component Mechanical Limit) + T(Thermal Help)

The factored ultimate load is the critical case of:

M(Load Set Mechanical Ultimate)(Component Mechanical Ultimate) + T(Thermal Hurt)

M(Load Set Mechanical Ultimate)(Component Mechanical Ultimate) + T(Thermal Help)