I'm working on a project for a customer.  I can't be specific because of proprietary conerns and our nondisclosure agreement, but I can talk in gereralities.

See photo below.  I have a force applied to the large plate by fluid flowing by it, left to right.  The hydraulic actuator you see raises and lowers the plate to deflect the flow.  The actuator moves up and down.  I need to know if my actuator is strong enough to push the plate up into the flow.

So, what I have done is first raise the plant to different positions and use the flow simulation to find the angle with the most pressure on the plate.  Once I have that, I export the results to simulation, and then apply the forces in the properties of the simulation. 

I'm not sure what fixtures to use- I tried hinge, but it didn't show any stress at the hinges, which was strange.  When I added the floating actuator, I can't get it to run.  How do I find out how much force is acting on the actuator rod?

Thanks!