Idac safety-checks temporary access platform
An
Idac product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 26, 2009
Idac has carried out a finite element analysis (FEA) on a temporary access platform built by Eriks UK for a Thames Water sewage treatment settlement tank.
Periodically, settlement tanks are drained for engineers to gain access for inspection and/or maintenance work - for this reason, a safe platform was required for the engineers to use.
The access platform was constructed from aluminium.
Idac were required to carry out a linear structural analysis of the platform and check the safety factors.
Idac created two 3D models of the platform in Autodesk Inventor CAD system to represent two configurations of the platform; legs forward and legs back.
The geometry was simplified to remove any small features that were deemed unnecessary for the analysis.
Contact conditions were set for all the interfaces and fully fixed constraints were used at the supports.
Although the platform was only required to carry one person, area loads were applied at two locations to simulate two people standing on the platform in case of emergency.
The results for both leg configurations were well within design limits in terms of stress, and structure deflections under load were small.
In addition to these results, the safety factors were also calculated for the entire structure and the minimum safety factor for both configurations was found to be 5.
The analyses showed that the factors of safety for both leg configurations, when carrying double the load, were above 5 throughout the model.
This meant that the platform could potentially carry up to five people and still have a safety margin of 100 per cent.
The deflections in the structure under normal operating conditions were in the order of 1.5 mm, which implies a stiff structure that is unlikely to 'sway' during use.
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