Solving Ex02 adding stiffeners (from a 2d solution)

[federicodalinger]

Hi @kinnala, I hope you are well.

I was away from home to see your previous answer to my question. Fortunately, I found the error and for a single horizontal brace is working very accurately. However, when adding more of them (horizontal and vertical braces) I can't find a solution even assigning the nodal displacements by myself.

Please, see below the situation I am trying to solve:

The material for all plates is the same (stainless steel 316).
The thickness of the braces is the same, but the thickness of the door sheet is different.

To simplify the case, the braces can only move in the pressure direction, using simply supported constraints over their faces (there is no movement going up/down/left/right).

For the case without vertical braces, I tried to solve the door sheet displacement using the Ex02, and then adding the displacement for the horizontal braces. The solutions I found were accurate only when the braces were separated considerably.

Furthermore, when adding the vertical braces, to the same set of horizontal braces, I noticed that even adding a manual displacement (for the vertical ones) I was having high errors from the FEA software which I use to compare the results.

So, my questions are:

1. Is it possible to solve this kind of situation like this, in a 2D simplification? (using the Kirchhoff Theory, similar to Ex 02).
2. What do you think of adding the stiffness to the braces over the door sheet nodes? I mean, increasing the nodal door sheet stiffness due to the braces.
3. What are your thoughts about it?

I would like to understand and see if I can solve this case in a simple way (2D), without going to a 3D mesh analysis. However, it would be really appreciated if you could guide me through it.

Thanks so much in advance and I wish you a nice day.

Kind regards,
Federico