peteroznewman
Subscriber
It will be better if you mesh the flexible member using a sweep method, sweeping across the thickness. It will be better if the mesh is linear elements and you put 8 elements along the sweep direction, through the thickness of the material.
Since the model is symmetric, it will be faster if you put a plane down the center of the model and slice the flexible body in half, and use a symmetric boundary condition.
It will be faster if you use edge sizing to use fewer elements across the width.