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With the general design coming together I wanted to see how the structure would react with the forces that it will be experiencing. I decided to run a (rather quick and dirty) solidworks simulation to get an idea of where possible points of failure may be.

From this test we can see that the maximum axial and bending stress is more than two orders of magnitude less than the yield strength of the material which is a good indication that a failure mechanism will likely not be from the beems yielding.

This was already to some extend the suspicion though and further simulations will need to be done to evaluate other factors such as vibrations.

1. The cut extrusions were all distinct parts making modifications difficult
2. There was no way to place a sample directly in the center
3. The top part needed to be optimized to experience less torsional forces
4. The frame was not able to be easily enclosed with plexiglass panels

This first design made in solidworks had a few big issues