Bright Engineering was asked to do the FE calculations for a gangway for a super yacht. The gangway completely retracts in the back of the yacht's hull. After moving it out from the back of the ship it can be rotated to angles up to 90 degrees. It also can bend down to just above the quay side for easy access to the ship. The strength was checked at different positions.
Apart from the strength there was another concern. These long, low mass, low stiffness gangways can have a natural frequency that is very close to the frequency that is induced by walking. One way to avoid that is by landing the gangway on the quay side, but that was not desirable. Therefore calculations were done to find a mass-stiffness combination that allowed walking on the gangway without causing the gangway to go up and down severely.