Question
What are the details of each item to be defined when setting up a Traffic Surface Lane?
Answer
When defining a traffic lane on a plate element, the Traffic Surface Lane function is used to define the lane surface. To define the lane at the desired location, it is important to understand the role of each item in the Traffic Surface Lane.
The Traffic Surface Lane function defines the lane surface by determining the Lane Width, Wheel Spacing, and Lane Center position. To define a lane at a desired location, you need to understand the role of each item in the Traffic Surface Lane function. The function defines the lane by specifying the lane vertex row that serves as the reference for determining the lane center, and by defining the offset distance to the lane center.
The reason for defining the lane center position based on the reference edge and offset distance rather than directly inputting it is that there may not be a node at the center of the lane due to the mesh size of the modeled plate element.
Finally, the width of the traffic surface lane and the wheel spacing are determined based on the position of the lane center, which is defined by the reference lane edge and the offset distance to the lane center. Therefore, it is important to understand how the lane edge and offset distance are applied to determine the position of the lane center.
When defining a Traffic Surface Lane on a slab element, the lane center is determined by defining the reference lane edge and the offset distance to the lane center. The reference lane edge is typically defined using the 2 Points function by selecting a start and end point, and the direction of the lane edge is determined by the order in which the points are selected. The offset distance is applied with a positive value (+) to the right and a negative value (-) to the left, with respect to the direction of the reference lane edge.
| Offset Distance to Lane Center : Positive value(+) | Offset Distance to Lane Center : Negative value(-) |
※ Precautions when setting up a Traffic Surface Lane
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- The applied moving load on the traffic surface lane is input as a vertical load on the nodes within the lane. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that there are nodes within the traffic surface lane to obtain accurate analysis results. - If there is no node within the defined lane surface as shown in the left figure, no load will be applied. To obtain accurate results, it is necessary to sufficiently divide the elements within the lane surface. |