I knocked this model up and Simulation study to check out how easy it would be to do a preliminary design check on a steelwork building. The results were pleasing.

Here is the model. Sheet was just flat plate and used to easily apply wind loads. Building is 8 m high, 14 m wide and 63 m long (9 bays, 7m per bay).

The mesh.

And the beam stress analysis.

I thought this was pretty cool and done in a very short time. This kind of thing could be used by mechanical engineers for preliminary dselection of beam size. In my state structural engineers have to sign off any such design.

I heard the automatic definition of beam to shell bonded contact worked well and it did in this case. Had to fudge a few little things in the design to get the nodes to sit in the right place but that was relatively easy and understandable. Seems to have a lot of potential for this kind of thing.

Interested to hear if others use it for this application and what you think.