findStructuralBC

(To be removed) Find structural boundary conditions and boundary loads assigned to geometric region

findStructuralBC will be removed. Use the EdgeBC and FaceBC properties of femodel instead. (since R2023a) For more information on updating your code, see Version History.

Syntax

sbca = findStructuralBC(boundaryConditions,RegionType,RegionID)

Description

sbca = findStructuralBC(boundaryConditions,RegionType,RegionID) returns the structural boundary conditions and boundary loads assigned to the region specified by RegionType and RegionID. The function returns structural boundary conditions assigned by structuralBC and boundary loads assigned by structuralBoundaryLoad.

Examples

Find Structural Boundary Conditions

Find the structural boundary conditions for the faces of a 3-D geometry.

Create a structural model and include a block geometry.

structuralmodel = createpde("structural","static-solid");

Include the block geometry in the model and plot the geometry.

importGeometry(structuralmodel,"Block.stl");
pdegplot(structuralmodel,"FaceLabels","on","FaceAlpha",0.5)

Specify the surface traction on face 1 of the block.

structuralBoundaryLoad(structuralmodel,"Face",1, ...
                                       "SurfaceTraction", ...
                                       [100;10;300]);

Specify the pressure on face 3 of the block.

structuralBoundaryLoad(structuralmodel,"Face",3,"Pressure",300);

Apply free constraint on faces 5 and 6 of the block.

structuralBC(structuralmodel,"Face",[5,6],"Constraint","free");

Check the boundary condition specification for faces 1 and 3.

sbca = findStructuralBC(structuralmodel.BoundaryConditions, ...
                                                "Face",[1,3]);
sbcaFace1 = sbca(1)

sbcaFace1 = 
  StructuralBC with properties:

                RegionType: 'Face'
                  RegionID: 1
                Vectorized: 'off'

   Boundary Constraints and Enforced Displacements
              Displacement: []
             XDisplacement: []
             YDisplacement: []
             ZDisplacement: []
                Constraint: []
                    Radius: []
                 Reference: []
                     Label: []

   Boundary Loads
                     Force: []
           SurfaceTraction: [3×1 double]
                  Pressure: []
    TranslationalStiffness: []
                     Label: []

sbcaFace3 = sbca(2)

sbcaFace3 = 
  StructuralBC with properties:

                RegionType: 'Face'
                  RegionID: 3
                Vectorized: 'off'

   Boundary Constraints and Enforced Displacements
              Displacement: []
             XDisplacement: []
             YDisplacement: []
             ZDisplacement: []
                Constraint: []
                    Radius: []
                 Reference: []
                     Label: []

   Boundary Loads
                     Force: []
           SurfaceTraction: []
                  Pressure: 300
    TranslationalStiffness: []
                     Label: []

Check the boundary condition specification for faces 5 and 6.

sbca = findStructuralBC(structuralmodel.BoundaryConditions, ...
                                                 "Face",[5,6]);
sbcaFace5 = sbca(1)

sbcaFace5 = 
  StructuralBC with properties:

                RegionType: 'Face'
                  RegionID: [5 6]
                Vectorized: 'off'

   Boundary Constraints and Enforced Displacements
              Displacement: []
             XDisplacement: []
             YDisplacement: []
             ZDisplacement: []
                Constraint: "free"
                    Radius: []
                 Reference: []
                     Label: []

   Boundary Loads
                     Force: []
           SurfaceTraction: []
                  Pressure: []
    TranslationalStiffness: []
                     Label: []

sbcaFace6 = sbca(2)

sbcaFace6 = 
  StructuralBC with properties:

                RegionType: 'Face'
                  RegionID: [5 6]
                Vectorized: 'off'

   Boundary Constraints and Enforced Displacements
              Displacement: []
             XDisplacement: []
             YDisplacement: []
             ZDisplacement: []
                Constraint: "free"
                    Radius: []
                 Reference: []
                     Label: []

   Boundary Loads
                     Force: []
           SurfaceTraction: []
                  Pressure: []
    TranslationalStiffness: []
                     Label: []

Input Arguments

boundaryConditions — Structural boundary conditions

BoundaryConditions property of StructuralModel object

Structural boundary conditions of the model, specified as the BoundaryConditions property of a StructuralModel object.

Example: structuralmodel.BoundaryConditions

RegionType — Geometric region type

"Edge" for a 2-D model | "Face" for a 3-D model

Geometric region type, specified as "Edge" for a 2-D model or "Face" for a 3-D model.

Example: findStructuralBC(structuralmodel.BoundaryConditions,"Edge",1)

Data Types: char | string

RegionID — Geometric region ID

vector of positive integers

Geometric region ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs by using pdegplot.

Example: findStructuralBC(structuralmodel.BoundaryConditions,"Face",1:3)

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

sbca — Structural boundary conditions and boundary loads assignment

StructuralBC object

Structural boundary conditions and boundary loads assignment, returned as a StructuralBC object. For details, see StructuralBC Properties.

Version History

Introduced in R2017b

R2025a: To be removed

findStructuralBC will be removed. Use the EdgeBC and FaceBC properties of femodel instead.

For example, you can check the boundary conditions for all faces as follows.

model = femodel(AnalysisType="structuralStatic", ...
                Geometry="Block.stl");
model.FaceBC(1) = faceBC(Constraint="fixed");
model.FaceBC(3) = faceBC(XDisplacement=0);
model.FaceBC

Alternatively, you can check the boundary conditions of particular faces.

model.FaceBC(1:3)

The unified finite element model workflow defines the type of a problem and all of its parameters as the properties of an femodel object. This object enables you to specify physical parameters for structural, thermal, and electromagnetic types of analyses. The solver in the unified workflow uses only the parameters (properties) appropriate for the current analysis type while ignoring all other properties. If you switch the analysis type by setting the AnalysisType property of the model, the solver uses the appropriate set of properties corresponding to the new analysis type.

For more help migrating your existing code that uses StructuralModel to the unified finite element workflow, see Migration from Domain-Specific to Unified Workflow.