FEA of a Load Cell: Better Ways to Calculate Stress?

[richardstan]

Homework Statement

This is one half of a load cell I am analysing for an asignment. I have managed to calculate the stress in the beam using the equations below.
I have approximated the centroid to be along the red line so that I can work out the distance for M, and then taken y or (h/2) to be an average of the values from the thin linear section and the fat linear section. I get a value of 59MPa from this calc and the FEA module Solidworks Simulation gives me a value of 60MPa.
This could be fluke or could be correct I'm not too sure since the approximations I've used are quite rough. i.e. average y.

My question is, is there a better way of doing this? I would think that it could be analysed as a cantilever beam with a load at one end, with a varying cross section, but can't find any relevant physics/mathematics for varying cross section.

Homework Equations

Stress=\stackrel{My}{I} where I = second moment of area.
I = \stackrel{bh^{3}}{12}

The Attempt at a Solution

see above.

 

[sS.O.Ss]

hi richardstan i got the answer form simon barron he gave the answers before the submittion date...get in touch with simon i am sure you will get what you need...

all the best

see ya