Conveyor Tower Modal Analysis

[Anonymous]

I am modeling a tower that supports equipment and conveyors. The conveyors are on each level and move product between the equipment. My question is, how do I model the conveyor to be able to do a mass conversion for modal analysis (for the static linear analysis I have the loading to the support locations)? For equipment, I have previously determined the center of gravity and provided rigid links to the floor structure, but am unsure how to do this for a line (conveyor).  

Thanks! 

[Simau]

Hi @Anonymous 

it depends on the conditions of support of the conveyor on the tower.
if the ccovoyeur relies on the tower it will be necessary to model the whole structure (tower+conveyor).
If you don't want to bother with this isue, disign the last frame of the conveyor as a cantiler.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The tower I am working with has all conveyors internal to the system, so it is not used as a transfer tower. I ended up using a stiff weightless member at the center of the conveyor with distributed loads under the modal load case (that I used a mass conversion on). It worked and the results were as expected. I just was unsure at the if there was a better way. The loading I applied was dead load (structure and also mechanical equipment such as idlers) and live product load. 

[Artur.Kosakowski]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thank you for posting this information. I'd say you should mark it as the solution in case some other RSA users search for an answer for a similar design dilemma