loads porpagation in Abaqus

[franaudo]

In abaqus the loads from a previous step by default are propagated to the next one. To change the default behavior it is possible to add the key word OP=NEW to the step definition. OP can take the value NEW or MOD.

it should work like this:

• OP=MOD is default and implies that the loads applied to different nodes in previous steps are kept.
• OP=NEW implies that the loads applied in previous steps are removed.

This applies only to the same type of load: for example, specifying OP=NEW for a concentrated force will not delete the gravity load (I am not sure about this, I will check...)

More info here

[andrewliew]

Altered the GeneralStep object to have the .modify attribute (more appropriate than .propagate). If this is True (default) then OP=MOD, if False it switches to OP=NEW.