A load increment is a concept in structural analysis where the load is applied to a structure gradually to find the equilibrium iteratively. This is especially useful when considering nonlinearities or large deformations. The specification of load increments is primarily applied to the calculations according to the second-order analysis and the large deformation analysis: When considering large deformations, it is often difficult to find an equilibrium. If the loading is applied incrementally, it is possible to avoid instabilities.
For example, if two load increments are specified, one-half of the load is applied in the first step. It is iterated until the equilibrium is found. In the second step, the full load is then applied to the already deformed system and iterated again until the equilibrium is found.