It is preferred to model rivets and bolts with the corresponding Rivet, Simplified or Advanced Bolts feature instead of geometry parts. This allows for easy optimization of all bolt properties (size, type, material, contacts, pre-load) without updating geometry, contacts and mesh.
Rivets & Bolts defined in a static analysis can be used in a pre-stressed Modal and subsequent Transient, Harmonic, Random & Spectrum analyses.
Use Optimize Bonded Contacts to set recommended settings for selected contacts or connection folders.
If modelling bolts with CAD geometry use Create Bolt Contacts to setup a bolt contacts connections folder.
You may use Bolt Contact Match on tet-meshed parts to imprint the contact mesh on the target face.
Rivets
Rivets are efficient for connecting parts locally at each bolt hole edge. The search Max thickness is the individual part thickness. Tip: Create a worksheet named selection of all edges with a specified radius.
Engineering data for a rivet/bolt may be exported to the default app materials. If defined the “Tensile Yield Strength” and “Ultimate Yield Strength” is used in post processing.
Bolts Pretension
Assign both bolt material and recommended pretension based on design code and identified shaft diameter using the Bolts Pretension.
Simplified Bolts (to ground)
Create beam based Simplified Bolts at matching groups of head/nut edges or head/thread edges/faces.
Bolt pretension calculation from torque is based true geometry dimensions, (diameter of head, hole, thread) and bolt parameters (pitch, average thread diameter) (p28).
Bolt contacts are adjusted/morphed to the geometry and may cause mesh quality issues. Morphing can be turned off. Use the Thread mesh sizing to set matching mesh sizing based on the selected bolt size.
The bolt setup may be reused in linked analyses using the Child Setup. This will allow for “Solution Combination” in post processing.
Rivets Result
General Rivet results (forces and stresses) and Eurocode 3 utilization for selected step/time or max over time.
Bolts Result
General Bolt results (forces, stresses, adjustment, head contact pressure, average joint contact normal/slip force) and code evaluation for selected step/time or maximum over time.
Bolt results can be evaluated at Result Location Head/Mid/Thread section to account for different stress area due to Nominal Diameter Length and the variable shaft bending moment, Mb.
Bolts Fatigue
Bolts Fatigue evaluation based on normal/structural/shear stress and Eurocode 3 S-N curves.
Cumulative damage based on grouped fatigue load cases or by solution editor.
Child Result
Evaluate a different Result Item at a different Result Location (at a different time/step) for a selected parent results object using Child Result.
Group Result
Evaluate a selected Result Item at a different Result Location (at a different time/step) for a group of selected parent results objects using Grouped Result.
Mesh Result
Use Mesh Results to display FEM results (temperature, stress, strain, contact) from added bolts.
One-button-click Bolt report for selected analysis with information for all defined rivets/bolts and their results.
The Bolt report is available by installing the Report Generator app and will use the Bolt Toolkit license. The general report features requires the Report Generator license.
The bolt report is easy to import to Microsoft Word.
Eurocode 3 assessment
Rivet and bolt assessment according to Eurocode 3 for different joint categories including detailed results summary in bolt report.
AISC 360-16 assessment
Bolt assessment according to AISC 360-16 for different joint categories including detailed results summary in bolt report.
User code assessment
User defined bolt codes can be created adding additional materials, S-N curves or edit the expressions for utilization calculation.
Bolt Settings
To manage global app settings or edit the codes use the Bolt Settings object. Settings can be imported from a selected previous app version. The settings can then be saved to update the app default values.
Active License
The Active License button displays the status of the license. Click to release (check in) the license.
Geometry and mesh preparation
Thread mesh sizing
Bolt Contacts
Rivets
Sequential Pretension
Export Bolt Material
Simplified Bolts (to ground)
Advanced Bolts (to ground)
Child Setup
Rivets Result
Bolts Result
Bolts Fatigue
Child Result
Group Result
Mesh Result
Bolt object worksheet preview
Bolt Report
Eurocode 3 assessment
AISC 360-16 assessment
User code assessment
Bolt Settings
Active License
Use Optimize Bonded Contacts to set recommended settings for selected contacts or connection folders.
You may use Bolt Contact Match on tet-meshed parts to imprint the contact mesh on the target face.