A Design Study was performed on a Cyclone Seperator stand for different positions of the rectangular stiffner from the top of the stand, with the goal of maximizing the buckiling Factor of Safety. The thickness of the stiffner is 60 mm. The bottom of the Cyclone stand was fixed and the load acting is set to 150 KN.

First a baseline simulation was conducted to obtain the initial Buckiling Resultant Amplitudes.

Next the design study was carried out.

Design Study Setup Design Variables: Name Type Value Units Offset Range with Step Min:100 Max:1900 Step:300 mm Constraints: Sensor name Condition Bounds Units Study name Buckling Factor of Safety4 is greater than Min:20.000000 - Buckling 1 Goals: Name Goal Properties Weight Study name Buckling Factor of Safety5 Maximize Buckling Factor of Safety 10 Buckling 1

The study constaints were set to choose Design scenarios in which the Minimum Buckiling Factor of Safety at any point in the component would be more than 20 and the goal set was to maximize the Buckling Factor of Safety.

The Study Results

The above Table shows the results of the simulation, with the stiffner offset distance from the uppermost point of the stand shown in the first column and the Minimum Buckling Factor of safety values in the 2nd and 3rd columns.
The optimal design chosen was scenario 4. which was located at exactly the midpoint of the stand height at 1000mm and provided a buckiling Factor of Safety of almost 21. The stiffner at the centre provides the best results as it prevents sideways deflection of the structural members above and below it by reducing the structural members effective height equally.