Quick Reference Guide

Table of contents

• Geometry and mesh preparation
• Save/Import/Refresh Weld Configuration
• Weld Contacts
• Add Fillet/Butt welds
• Virtual Fillet/Butt welds
• Export Weld Material
• Weld Child Setup
• Weld Strength Result
• Laminar Strength Result
• Weld Fatigue Result
• Cumulative damage
• Child Result
• Group Result
• Mesh Result
• Weld object worksheet preview
• Weld Report
• Eurocode 3 assessment
• AISC 360-16 assessment
• User code assessment
• Weld Settings
• Active License

Geometry and mesh preparation

• It is preferred to use solid geometry meshed with sweep method and Solid Shell element type .
  This is equivalent to using shell mesh, but it eliminates manual mid-surface pre-processing work.
• It is preferred to model weld seams with the Add Welds instead of geometry parts.
  This allows for easy optimization of the weld configuration and throat thickness without updating geometry, contacts and mesh.
• If using shell geometry, extend and connect edges with Shared topology.

Save/Import/Refresh Weld Configuration

• The weld setup (i.e. defined welds and result objects) are saved automatically to the “user_files” folder when solving.
• The weld setup can be reused in a model assembly using the Import Weld Configuration.
• If the source files are updated use the Refresh Weld Configuration to update the current model (assembly).

Weld Contacts

• If not modelling weld seams with geometry or “Add Fillet/Butt Welds” use Optimize Bonded Contacts to allow for “Weld Strength” evaluation. It is possible to use MPC formulation if setting the Weld Settings property “Weld Force Extraction = Underlying Element”.
• If modelling weld seams with CAD geometry use Create Weld Contacts to setup a weld contacts connections folder.
  Make sure to exclude/suppress contacts between “non-weld” parts.
• You may use Weld Contact Match on tet-meshed parts to imprint the contact mesh on the target face.
  Do not use Node Merge Group in combination with weld contacts.
  Instead of “Weld Contact Match” you may use imprints on geometry.

Add Fillet/Butt welds

• Multiple weld seams can be defined in one object if the reference face for one seam is not the target face for another.
• The first edge picked defines the start of section path.
• Do not use Share Topology to connect solid bodies as this is not compatible with “Add weld” and will make meshing more difficult.
• If weld graphics is corrupt try debugging tips to open in SCDM and “Cut&Paste” geometry and update Mechanical.
• The Add Butt Weld requires a chamfered geometry.
• Welds defined in a static analysis can be used in a pre-stressed Modal and subsequent Transient, Harmonic, Random & Spectrum analyses.
• Use Mesh Results “Rst Material Number” to display “Add Fillet/Butt Weld” Elements added into FE Model.
• Weld contacts are adjusted/morphed to the geometry and may cause mesh quality issues. The morphing can be turned off.

Virtual Fillet/Butt welds

• Virtual Fillet/Butt Welds can be defined for shell and solids to visualize and simplify post processing.
• Weld Strength results can be added using the context action on the weld or group.

Export Weld Material

• Engineering data for a weld may be exported to the default app materials.

Weld Child Setup

• The Weld Child Setup let you re-use the Add Welds Group setup from one linked parent structural (or thermal) analysis.
• The result objects from the parent analysis can be imported using the context action on the Weld Child Setup object.

Weld Strength Result

• It is recommended to pre-define the weld sections using Virtual Fillet/Butt Welds.
• Result for “Add * Welds” and “Virtual Welds” must be selected using the list in the Geometry Select property.
• The weld section defines the results path and reference face represents the part that is welded.
• Pay attention to cruciform joints.
• For shell and solid models without weld elements the weld offset is included by default.
• Weld strength results requires that Nodal Forces are set in Analysis Settings.
• Set “Calculate Min Thickness = Yes” and “Result Item = Min thickness” to find min weld size, a_min .
  If a > 2*plate thickness or equal 999 mm it indicates poor design or with respect to the loading.
• Check Warnings message for plastic bending stress.
• Result items can be averaged as floating (default), segment, section (linear/constant) and group.
• Eurocode 3 recommendations for plate thickness, t > 4 mm, and weld length, l > 30 mm or 6*a.
• Model tests show that the method chosen to model the weld influences the result up to ±15%.
• Use Fillet/Butt Weld strength Shell for Shell models where element size » weld size.

Laminar Strength Result

• Check Eurocode 3 Lamellar strength “trough-thickness toughness”.

Weld Fatigue Result

• Weld Fatigue evaluation based on IIW recommendations for fatigue.
• FAT class S-N curves from IIW, Eurocode 3 and DNV are included, see the design codes section.
  User defined S-N curves can be added.
• CSV Stress Fatigue for post-processing fatigue of generic stress data.
• Linearized Stress Fatigue for post-processed fatigue of through thickness linearized stress (common in ASME).
  Available Linearized stress types: Absolute Principal Stress, Maximum Principal Stress, Middle Principal Stress, Minimum Principal Stress, Stress Intensity, Equivalent Stress,Sum of Principal Stress, Normal Stress X, Normal Stress Y, Normal Stress Z, Shear Stress XY, Shear Stress YZ, Shear Stress XZ.
• Structural Stress Fatigue for post-processing fatigue in welds (DNV, Eurocode etc.).
  Available stress types: Seqv, Snormal, Sbending, Sstruct, Sparallel, Stotal, Tparallel, Tnormal, Ttotal.
• Nominal Stress Fatigue is mainly used for base material fatigue evaluation.
  Available stress types: Principal, Sum of Principal, Stress Intensity, Equivalent, Shear (Max), Normal X/Y/Z, Shear XY/YZ/XZ.
  The geometric stress in Nominal Stress Fatigue can be derived using the Hot-Spot Stress Fatigue method.
• Hot-Spot Stress Fatigue is recommended for weld fatigue evaluation of shells and solids.
  Available stress types: Normal (default), Parallel, Shear, Shear (Max), Principal (no limit), Principal (IIW limit), Principal (Normal), Principal (Parallel), Equivalent, Equivalent (DNV).
  Use e.g. “mesh inflation” to create at least one element between each Hot-Spot extrapolation line.
  Use e.g. “Weld mesh” method to create weld mesh connections and Hot-Spot imprints in a shell model.
• Effective Notch Stress Fatigue is recommended for evaluation of the weld toe or weld root and requires detailed geometry and mesh preparation, min 4 elements in a 90° fillet.
  Available stress types: Tangential (IIW default), Parallel, Principal, Sum of Principal, Stress Intensity, Equivalent, Shear (Max).
• Results are displayed if mesh is good enough. Check result item Life quality is 100% ±50%.
• Don’t use long path names with regional characters or very large node numbers >1E8, see Known Issues and Limitations.

Cumulative damage

• Cumulative damage based on grouped fatigue load cases or by solution editor.

Child Result

• Evaluate a selected result item (at a different time/step) for a selected parent results object using Child Result.
• Fillet Weld Strength Child
• Butt Weld Strength Child
• Fatigue Child

Group Result

• Evaluate a selected result item (at a different time/step) for a group of selected parent results objects using Grouped Result.
• Grouped Weld Strength
• Grouped Weld Fatigue

Mesh Result

• Use Mesh Results to display FEM results (temperature, stress, strain, contact) from added welds.

Weld object worksheet preview

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

Weld Report

• One-button-click Weld report for selected analysis with information for all defined welds and their results.
• The Weld report is available by installing the Report Generator app and will use the Weld Toolkit license.
  The general report features requires the Report Generator license.
• The weld report is easy to import to Microsoft Word.

Eurocode 3 assessment

• Weld assessment according to Eurocode 3 for strength and fatigue including detailed results summary in the Weld report.

AISC 360-16 assessment

• Weld assessment according to AISC 360-16 for strength including detailed results summary in the Weld report.

User code assessment

• User defined weld codes can be created adding additional materials, S-N curves or edit the expressions for utilization calculation.

Weld Settings

• To manage global app settings or edit the codes use the Weld 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.