Hi!

I've done some pressuretests of IPE80 (S355) beams in a hydraulic press to test their capacity. I'm trying now to see if I can recreate the tests in Solidworks. The setup is like this (without the stiffeners):

The beam lies free between the foundation and the press, only held in place by friction. The press doesen't move or rotate in any direction.

For the simplicity of it I first tried with a shell model. I've added rotation fixtures on the top flange to simulate the press. Here are the results for the buckling and the static test:

The buckling test was applied with a force of 1 N so the buckling load is 180,47 kN if I understand this right.

In the static test I lowered the force until I could get a maximum tension of 355 N/mm2 which is the yield strength of S355. The force here was 113 kN.

My questions are:

- Is buckling and static simulation the right tests to replicate this experiment?

- I've just applied force and runned the tests. Is is this simple or do I need to do something more with the results?

- The material (Solidworks DIN Materials - DIN Steel (Structural)) doesn't seem to apply to the results. When I change the material the results are the same in both buckling and static. Am I doing something wrong?

- All the materials have a yield strength of 275 N/mm2. This can't be right?

This is my first go with Solidworks so I hope you can bear with me