Reply To: How to apply a stress as an initial load state ?

[dlooman]

So it's mostly a convergence issue?  To unload the prestress gradually you can fully constrain the 2nd model in a first load step.  Then in a 2nd load step (with multiple substeps) you can delete the constraints at all the nodes not part of the supports.  The ddele command has the option to replace the constraint with a force which can then be ramped off:  DDELE,,,,,FORCE.  When you deactivate a constraint in Mechanical this option is used by default.