| Our work is defined as the design of mechanical structures. Hence, we are on a boundary between structural and mechanical engineers. Such a distinction also exists in the type of software used to analyse for stresses in the materials used for our designs. That is, the mechanical engineer typically uses 2D or 3D type elements in a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to output a full field view of stress on the part. On the other hand, the structural engineer uses linear elements to solve for forces and moments in structural members. The latter is a subset of FEA and offers primarily the advantage that the paths of forces and moments can be analysed for in the structure.
At HMIDE, we are interested in load paths and we calculate average (or nominal) stresses in the materials from the resulting member forces and moments in accordance with the various standards dealing with structural analysis. For the purpose of structural analysis, we use primarily electronic means and the software we use for that is MicroStran by Engineering Systems. With that software's intuitive macro language input format, we control the input of some very large and complex models. That format is particularly useful for controlling the numerous and complex load cases and load combinations typical of these bulk material handling machines. An example model is that of a coal loader at Wollongong:  Linear Element Model of Coal Loader at Wollongong, Australia. No. Nodes: 814 - No. Members: 1988 |
