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Good morning, Sean. This is a very recommended course. I am enjoying it a lot. I have a question about the implementation of distributed loads. The way to introduce distributed loads is according to global axes. But in the case where we want to consider, for example, wind loads on the roof (perpendicular to the surface) and, in another case, snow loads (according to the given regulations in horizontal projection), what would be the correct way to introduce the distributed loads? Specifically, if we introduce loads -qz on an inclined surface, will it be assigned to the structure as if it were a horizontal projection load?
Thank you.
Hey @racreas - great to hear you’re enjoying the course! Regardless of the orientation of the applied load, I would generally seek to resolve it into orthogonal components that align with the global axis system. This is the easiest to work with in the code as we have written it in the course.
When it comes specifically to establishing equivalent nodal loads for distributed loads applied to beam elements, you’ll see that we first resolve these into components parallel and perpendicular to the inclined member. This allows us to easily determine the equivalent nodal actions at each end of the member. These actions are then remapped to be aligned along the global axis system when they are combined in the global force vector.
This should become a little clearer when you get to where we start working with these distributed loads in our notebook code.
S