The load was transferred through knife-edge bearings (see Figure 3), which provided pinned boundary conditions perpendicular to stronger axis y and fixed perpendicular to weaker axis z.
Mapped mesh was used all over the column and welds; the degenerate triangular elements were used only on few plates of knife-edge bearings which were modelled with several plates (see Figure 3).
Pinned boundary conditions around the axis y and node coupling in longitudinal direction x were used at the position of the knife-edge bearings.