Wow,

No friction, please let me know if you need investors for your new invention! Why leave out friction? Its real and varies tremendously. Are you trying to under-report your loads to make somebody happy? Or are you trying to present as real a model result as possible?

As for gaps, how much control will the gaps be built with? Will the bundles fit precisely etc.


You should model and look at results as real as possible and perhaps do sensitivity studies.... What if I get no gap in this direction or that? What if mu is .6 or .35? Once you estblish what things overload your model then you can deal with them.

Remeber flex analysis is not a video game trying to achieve some mystical numbers by computerized fakery, but it attempts to evaluate the worth of a design before its built!