I'm trying to run a structural study and I am a little confused this being my first time doing this. There are 4 identical scaffolds made with A36 steel. The bottom scaffold supports the top three as well as a volume of water having a weight of 15689.59 lbs. I need to figure out the maximum loading a scaffold can support. I calculated what the weight of 3 scaffolds are and added this to the water weight. This is my total loading. I applied a force to all the plate faces using the total option button for the force value. Is the setup for this simulation correct? I'm running the simulation and I am getting high values for the total loading possible. I'm not sure if I set up the study correctly. Attached is the SolidWorks file of the model. I know that I could of modeled a quarter of the entire model to take advantage of symmetry but decided not to. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could take a look at the setup. I am using SolidWorks 2015.
each scaffold weighs = 300.25 lbs
3 scaffolds weigh = 900.75 lbs
water volume weight = 15689.59 lbs
Total weight that bottom scaffold must hold = 900.75 + 15689.59 = 16590.34 lbs
each scaffold weighs = 300.25 lbs
3 scaffolds weigh = 900.75 lbs
water volume weight = 15689.59 lbs
Total weight that bottom scaffold must hold = 900.75 + 15689.59 = 16590.34 lbs
![[pc2]](/data/assets/smilies/pc2.gif "[pc2] [pc2]")
