Hello!

We are trying to mimic the dynamic behavior of a pedestrian bridge. One connection is especially difficult to model and it is the connection between the deck and the cross beams. Four screws attach the deck to a steel plate that is welded onto an HEA beam. The rest of the deck simply rests on a small steel profile on top of the HEA beam. This is a highly non-linear connection and we want to simulate it in a simply linear frequency step. One of the two most accurate connections that we have tested are connector sections at the middle (with calculated stiffnesses in all directions) and at the edges of the deck (with only half the vertical calculated stiffness and no other stiffness in any other direction). The second accurate model is with reference points that are coupled with each deck half that in turn ha a connector section to the HEA beam, with the same connector section at the middle of the deck (no coupling, simply point to point). Is there any way to have connector section/springs along the deck partition edge and the HEA beam? Or is there perhaps an other method available? Thanks in advance!