Detached mesh regions

[roldy]

I'm working on a structural member that is undergoing pure bending. The load is at the end of the member. I am modeled this as a 3 dimensional solid. I meshed using the bottom up approach and associated the meshed regions to their appropriate geometries. The problem I am having is that when I look at the deformed member, the center region does not deform as would be expected. Instead it remains static and there is an apparent gap at the bottom of the region and it looks like the top of the region intersected the deformed geometry. It looks like the center region is not connected to its surrounding geometry. I am not sure how to go about fixing this. Attached is a picture showing the member being tested and the deformed mesh.