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Load Case Combinations in ANSYS:

by Paul Dufour

Load case combinations/operations in ANSYS are not really as intuitive as they could be, however this
is something that there is a common need for. A couple of the reasons loading conditions may be
combined could be,

Separating out the effect of several different loads applied to a structure at the same time.
Instead of applying all the loads at once, apply them each separately, look at them separately,
and then add them together to get the full effect.

Combining various loadings in different ways. For example you might run a 1G unit load case
in the X, Y and Z directions, then have different combinations:
1.0*LC1 + 2.5*LC2 + 3.75*LC3
5.0*LC1 + 1.0*LC2 + 0.5*LC3
2.0*LC1 + 10.0*LC2 + 2.0*LC3
3.5*LC1 + 0.5*LC2 + 5.0*LC3
etc
This allows you to make only 3 runs (for example) and create many different loading scenarios
much faster than if you repeated an actual solution for each specific scenario.

The key concept to remember when combining results is that your database, that is whatever is
currently in memory, serves as your accumulator. For example to combine two load cases:

Results currently in
database

Load Case

Combined Load Case in database.

Overwrites previous contents.

With load case combinations we are only talking about linear analysis. Generally speaking, nonlinear
results cannot be superimposed or combined because they are path dependent in many cases. Before
discussing the details of how to do load combinations, lets get some ANSYS-speak definitions out
of the way.
Load Step: I think of this as a loading condition. This is a single set of defined loads and boundary
conditions and their associated solution results. Within an interactive session the first solve you do is
load step 1, then next solution is load step 2, etc. If you leave the solution processor after solving to do
post-processing or something, the load step counter gets set back to one. Another more efficient way
to solve several different load steps is to use the LSSOLVE command (Solution Solve From LS
Files). With this method you define a set of loads and B.C.s, then use the LSWRITE command
Copyright 2003 Belcan Engineering Group, Inc.

(Solution Load Step Options Write LS File) to write it out to a file. You assign a number to the
load step and it writes out a file called jobname.sXX, where XX is the number you assigned (load step
one is jobname.s01, etc). These files are simply APDL files with the commands for that load step
(D commands for displacements, F commands for forces, etc). After all the loading conditions are
defined, they can be run all at once (one after the other automatically) by using LSSOLVE. The
command requires you to specify which load steps you want to solve as shown below.

Results Set: The solution results will be stored in the results file as result sets. For a linear static
analysis like we are talking about, the correlation between Load Step numbers and Results Set numbers
will be one to one as shown below. Only one set of results can be stored in the database at a time, so
when you want to look at a particular set, you have to read it in from the results file. Reading it in
clears the previous results set from active memory.

Load Case: This is where things start to get a little fuzzy. A Load Case is a pointer to a Set in the
results file [LCDEF], or it could be a pointer to a previously defined Load Case that has been written to
a file [LCFILE]. For the sake of keeping this simple, for the rest of this discussion it will be
considered to be referring to a set in the current results file. The Load Case is given an arbitrary
identification number between 1 and 99.

Copyright 2003 Belcan Engineering Group, Inc.

Load Case Combination: This is a combination of defined Load Cases. This sounds so simple, but it
is deceptive because typically what you want to do is make your combined Load Case some
combination of the Load Steps (loading conditions) that you initially ran. I want 2.5 times Load Step
1 plus 4.0 times Load Step 2 you want to tell ANSYS. You cant do it. You can only do operations
using Load Cases. So there is an intermediate step of creating Load Cases that consist of a single
Results Set. To make it nice and confusing the Load Case Combination is also referred to as a Load
Case.
Creating Load Case Combinations:
All of the GUI dialogs needed to do these operations are located in
the Load Case section of the General Postprocessor as shown at
right, however, however I find it quite clunky and awkward to do it
this way even though I use the GUI for most things. The GUI really
doesnt provide enough feedback to the user as to whats going on.
We will talk about the APDL commands from here on. I have found
it is easier and clearer to keep track of what you are doing by stacking
these commands into a macro/input file.
Step 1 Create and solve all of your Load Steps
These are the various load and/or boundary conditions you want to
combine in some way.
Step 2 Create the initial set of Load Cases
These are the Load Cases that simply point to a Set in the results file.
Since we cant operate with Results Sets, these Load Cases will be
combined to make our final Load Cases that we care about. I
typically create my initial Load Cases with a number offset from 1.
LCDEF,51,1
LCDEF,52,2
LCDEF,53,3
LCDEF,54,4
LCDEF,55,5
LCDEF,56,6
LCDEF,57,7
LCDEF,58,8
LCDEF,59,9
LCDEF,60,10
LCDEF,61,11
LCDEF,62,12

The Load Case numbers here could be the same as the Results Set
numbersANSYS will not complain. However this might make things
more confusing and harder to keep track of. Its a matter of personal
preference.
Since the Operation command works on whatever results are in the
database, its technically not true that operations can only be done on
Load Cases. You could issue SET,1 to read in Load Step 1, then do
an operation adding a defined Load Case to it, to generate a new Load
Casebut that gets too confusing.

The syntax of the LCDEF command is,

LCDEF, Load Case Number, Load Set Number the Load Case Num. is Pointing to

Now we will operate on the defined Load Cases, which are really just aliases to the Results Sets.
Copyright 2003 Belcan Engineering Group, Inc.

Step 3 Do a Load Case Combination and Write It Out to a File

Lets start with an easy example, adding two results sets together.
LCASE,51
LCOPER,ADD,52
LCWRITE,1

!
!
!
!
!
!

Reads Load Case 51 (i.e. Result Set 1) into database.

Adds LC 52 to database (which consists of LC51) and
stores the result back in the database. If you now
plot results, you will see the sum of LC51 & LC52.
Write out a file called jobname.L01 with the combined
results for later use.

Lets say I want to do something a little more complicated such as the following Combined Load Cases
made from the initial Load Cases defined above,
CLC1 = 1.15 {2.0 ( LC54 + LC55 )}
CLC2 = 1.15 {LC51 + 1.5 ( LC54 + LC55 )}

This could consist of the following steps.

a) Good idea to clear out any existing load cases from memory [LCZERO]. This is because any
operation command will be done using the results currently active in the database.
b) Apply any factors you want to the initial load cases [LCFACT].
c) Select the Load Cases you want to operate on [LCSEL]. This Load Case select logic is very
similar to selecting entities.
d) Do the operation [LCOPER].
e) Add a title for plotting purposes [/TITLE].
f) Write out the Combined Load Case [LCWRITE]. Has the form jobname.L01 (.L02, etc).
The APDL commands for this would be,
C*** start of load combination no. 1
LCZERO
!
LCFACT,54,2.0*1.15
!
LCFACT,55,2.0*1.15
LCSEL,S,54,55,1
!
LCOPER,ADD,ALL
!
/TITLE,Combined Load Case 1: Live + Dead
LCWRITE,1
!
C*** start of load combination no. 2
LCZERO
!
LCFACT,51,1.15
!
LCFACT,54,1.15*1.5
!
LCFACT,55,1.15*1.5
!
LCSEL,S,51
!
LCSEL,A,54,55,1
!
LCOPER,ADD,ALL
!
/TITLE,Combined Load Case 2: Live + Dead
LCWRITE,2
!

Start with nothing

Apply a factor
Select LC54 & LC55
Add them together
Load
Write out LC1 to a file
Clear out existing
Apply a factor
Apply a factor
Apply a factor
Select LC51
Additionally select LC54 & LC55
Add them all up
+ Axial Load
Write out LC2 to a file

Copyright 2003 Belcan Engineering Group, Inc.

Step 4 Read in and Post-process the Combined Load Case

The LCASE command retrieves a load case file into the database (just as the SET command retrieves
results data from the results file).
LCASE, ID number

Then post-process in the usual fashion.

Summary:
There are many other Load Case operations available, such as Subtraction, Max & Min, Square Root
Sum of Squares, etc. See ANSYS Help Basic Analysis Procedures Guide The General
Postprocessor (POST1) Additional POST1 Processing Creating and Combining Load Cases for
more details.
There are two key things to remember:
1. The database is your accumulator. You operate on the database results plus a specified load
case, with the results of that operation overwriting what was in the database initially.
Database = Database + Load Case Specified

(where + is any operator)

2. You cant really operate directly on Sets in the results file. You can only specify Load Cases in
the operation command.
Individual
Loading
Conditions
(Load Steps)
RESULT SET 1

Intermediate
Load
Cases

RESULT SET 2

Final Combined
Load Case

LOAD CASE 10
RESULT SET 3
RESULT SET 4

LOAD CASE 1
LOAD CASE 11

RESULT SET 5
RESULT SET 6

Copyright 2003 Belcan Engineering Group, Inc.