×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Bolted Joints in ANSYS

Bolted Joints in ANSYS

Bolted Joints in ANSYS

(OP)
I am very familiar with Nastran solver codes, but a recent client of mine prefers ANSYS and I am currently trying to bridge the gap between these two software packages. One area in particular that I was curious about is modeling bolted joint connections. Typically in my experience with Nastran it isn't necessary to explicitly model the bolt itself - instead I'll do something like use rigid bodies (RBEs) to connect to the rest of the mesh structure and have a spring element (CBUSH) between these rigid bodies to control stiffness in each DOF.
Example

I came across contact elements and pretension elements, which could be used to explicitly define the bolted connection, but this is more "refined" then I currently need for my analysis. Is it common to implement simplified methods like the one I described above to model these connections? If yes, what are some methods that you've employed?

RE: Bolted Joints in ANSYS

Yes, it is common such methods with ansys to simplify the fasteners connections. You can use a "bushing" type of joint, then you can defines the stiffness coefficients in each directions.
The Ansys help describes the procedure to apply it, here is the path:
// Mechanical Application User's Guide // Features // Connections // Joints // Types of Joints

RE: Bolted Joints in ANSYS

If you're using Ansys Workbench Mechanical, there's a magical feature for modeling solid bolts: The program will automagicly cut the shank of the bolt in half then apply constraint equations and a displacement which gives the desired preload. The only downside is that large displacements can produce odd results with constraint equations. Alternatively, you can apply a contact offset underneath the bolt head to achieve the desired amount of preload.

Of course, there are simpler ways of modeling bolts depending on your desired level of accuracy. Here is a paper that describes various ways of representing bolts in your ANSYS model: http://www.ansys.com/staticassets/ANSYS/staticasse...

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources