Quick Reference Guide

Table of contents

• Geometry and mesh preparation
• Create Washer Mesh
• Thread mesh sizing
• Bolt Contacts
• Rivets
• Sequential Pretension
• Export Bolt Material
• Bolts Pretension
• 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

Geometry and mesh preparation

• 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.

Create Washer Mesh

A Washer mesh imprint around the rivet or bolt holes can be added using the context action “Create Washer Mesh” for an individual Rivet/Bolt object or for all objects in the Group.

Thread mesh sizing

• When using Advanced Bolts use the Thread mesh sizing feature to link mesh sizing to the selected bolt dimension.

Bolt Contacts

• 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.
• Rivets Body to Body is a variant to create Rivets connecting two groups.

Sequential Pretension

• In a bolt group the bolts may be preloaded in the order they are selected in the scoping in a multi-step analysis.

Export Bolt Material

• 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.
• Simplified Bolts with Nut is used to find connections within one group of edges/faces.
• Simplified Bolts to Ground can be defined if modelling e.g. a compression only support.

Advanced Bolts (to Ground)

• Create solid Advanced bolts at matching groups of head/nut edges or head/thread edges/faces.
• Define your own bolt geometry files and save in the app.
• 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.
• Advanced Bolts to ground can be defined if modelling e.g. a compression only support.

Child Setup

• 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.

Bolt object worksheet preview

• The Bolt object worksheet preview uses the Worksheet Preview in ReportGenerator to display all details of a bolt object including the result summary tables.

Bolt Report

• 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.