Structural Analysis of Support Structures for Industrial Cooking Pans A Finite Element Study of the GS23 Series

Abstract

This study presents structural analyses of the right-side support structures used in the GS23 series of industrial cooking pans developed by Steeltech. The analyses were performed using the finite element method (FEM) to assess stress, deformations, and structural stability under representative static load cases. Two support structure variants were considered, corresponding to pan sizes of 150-300 L and 50- 100 L, respectively. The results show that both structures are conservatively dimensioned, with all stress levels remaining below the material yield strength of 252 MPa. The safety factors were approximately 3.2 for the 150-300 L structure and 3.6 for the 50-100 L structure. The most critical region in both designs was identified at the motor mounting hole. The stress levels always remained within acceptable limits. A linear eigenvalue buckling analysis showed high load multiplier factors, suggesting that both structures are far from their critical buckling loads. The maximum total deformation was small in all load cases and is not expected to affect performance. A thickness sensitivity study showed that the 150-300 L structure is sensitive to thickness reductions of rectangular hollow sections (RHS) beams below 2 mm, where stresses increase significantly. The 50-100 L structure is less sensitive and shows no significant increase in stress when the RHS beam thickness is reduced from 3 mm to 1.5 mm. This suggests potential for material savings. The current designs provide sufficient structural performance under the considered load cases. While optimisation potential exists through thickness reduction, greater improvements may be achieved through design modifications aimed at manufacturing efficiency.