Home / Heavy Mechanical Industry
Industry: Heavy Mechanical

Structural analysis for large mechanical structures.

Strength, stiffness, stability, fatigue and dynamics of heavily loaded machines, handling systems and fabricated equipment.

Mechanical function and structural behaviour must be assessed together.

A stress check alone may not be enough.

A structure can satisfy a strength criterion and still be unsuitable because of excessive deformation, alignment sensitivity, buckling, vibration or fatigue.

AeroMech can use hand calculations, beam and shell models or detailed nonlinear finite element analysis to identify the behaviour that governs the engineering decision.

Illustrative systems

Heavy mechanical structures in practice.

Single-point mooring off-loading tower and turret system
Off-loading tower: a large structure combining global load transfer with local mechanical details.
Large cable carousel structure
Cable carousel: ring loading, support stiffness, local details and deformation-sensitive operation.
Typical engineering questions

What must the structure do?

Is the structure strong and/or stiff enough under operating loads?
Could local plates, shells or members buckle?
Will deformation affect alignment or mechanical operation?
Could cyclic loading or vibration influence the service life?
Where should fillet welds be used, and where are full-penetration welds required?
Does the structure comply with the applicable standards?
Engineering software

FEMDS streamlines finite-element verification and reporting.

FEMDS is software developed by AeroMech for post-processing and checking finite-element results for frame, plate and shell structures.

Visit FEMDS.com
FEMDS plate-structure design analysis FEMDS analysis of rectangular hollow-section frame structures FEMDS design verification of tubular frame sections FEMDS post-processing of an offshore jacket finite-element model

Discuss a heavy mechanical structure.

Share the load cases, operating function and the structural behaviour that needs to be understood.

Contact AeroMech