I went ahead and performed individual FEA on each beam by fixing it on one end and applying a load of 150lbs to the beam, however, this resulted in a deflection of 0.241" for the longest beam member. Is doing this accurate simulation for my part, or do I need to apply point loads on the beam where the plate will be supported? The plate will be supported by jacking bolts protruding from the i beams.
I eliminated the top plate and ran a study on just beams and was able to get a deflection; however I am not sure if this is accurate as it does not account for the rigidity of the 1/4" plate and the deflection is different than the individual FEA I ran. I used fixed geometry and applied the load (150lbs each) to the beams as shown in the picture below. Again, is applying point loads at the point of contact with the plate the direction I need to go?
I tried to run FEA on the model with the 1/4" plate modeled in, with small boss features to represent the jacking/support bolts, but I run into an issue as it says the model is unstable. The 1/4" plate will only be sitting on top of the i beams, and not mechanically fixed or bonded. I have applied a 'no penetration' contact set between the beams and the boss features on the underside of the plate. I applied the load to the top of the plate, representing the weight of the bar stock and finished part weight; I used the same fixed geometry as before, see picture below:
What contact sets or fixtures do I need to apply to keep the model stable for this simulation? I didn't think I would apply a bonded contact set between the plate and boss features given that the plate is free floating and will be held in place by tabs to keep it from shifting on the beams) do i need to model these tabs and apply contact sets?
