Structural Strength Analysis of Large Automated Storage Systems｜SimSolid

【 Background 】

       The client in this case is a major domestic manufacturer of warehouse systems, storage racks, and automated storage equipment, with decades of planning and design experience. Due to regulations and customer requirements, each project must meet structural strength targets. In recent years, such building structures have also been required to withstand seismic loads, and the client hopes to improve seismic resistance while maintaining reasonable costs.

       Initially, the client collaborated with civil and structural engineers but quickly encountered analytical difficulties: storage racks are composed of beams and columns, and even a simple rack structure (made of square tubes, I-beams, and channel beams) involves highly complex and massive assembly connections. To handle such extraordinarily large structures, structural engineers could only simplify the frame assembly model. This resulted in analysis outcomes that could not accurately reflect the strength of the real structure, while still requiring a high safety factor. Ultimately, this often led to over-design or overly strict safety conditions that could not satisfy regulatory requirements.

       When the client sought assistance from general CAE tools, another issue arose: using traditional Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis requires meshing the storage-rack model and discretizing it. For an enormous CAE model with an extremely high number of degrees of freedom, the hardware and computation time required made the project infeasible.

       瑞其 adopted the new-generation structural analysis tool Altair SimSolid, which uses Mesh-Free technology, to successfully complete the CAE structural-strength analysis of the large automated warehouse system. Important physical quantities—such as stress and strain distribution, displacement, safety factors, deformation trends, and reaction forces—were obtained rapidly.

Further reading: Product Introduction – Altair SimSolid

【 Results 】

       Mesh-Free CAE analysis enables fast and reliable computation of large and complex models. Using this technology, the structural-strength analysis of the large warehouse system was successfully completed.
       After finishing the strength analysis of the original design, 瑞其 assisted the client in identifying structural weak points and proposing reinforcement solutions. Further improvement was made based on bending moment, torsion, and shear load responses, and the improved design options were then compared and verified.

【 Technical Features 】

• Mesh-Free CAE analysis allows full computation of complex and large models without requiring simplification.

• Physical quantities and degrees of freedom are not created node-by-node (as in meshed models). Complex models can be imported directly, and boundary conditions and loads can be applied to existing geometric features.

• Compared with traditional FEM, the number of unknowns can be reduced by orders of magnitude (from tens of times to more than a hundred times), significantly reducing computation time.

• Overall CAE workflow is short, making it suitable for iterative product-design cycles—especially valuable for obtaining early-stage analytical feedback. Repeated design-change validation becomes manageable and efficient.

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