EnginSoft - CAE Conference Abstracts

EnginSoft International Conference 2011
CAE Technologies for Industry

A Novel Approach to Simplified Representation of Threaded Connections

Margini Stefano - Lombardini Motori (Italy)
Francia Giovanni - Lombardini Motori (Italy)

Abstract

Accurate modeling of stress fields arising in the proximity of threaded connections under assembly and working loads is of primary importance for structural analysis of many machine components.
Short of going the effective but costly way of thread-level discretization, any attempt to improve on the common representation of engaged threads as a cylindrical bonded interface, is seldom made.
To this end, a practical approach based on point-to-point contact elements is hereby proposed in order to overcome some of the shortcomings entailed by the bonded contact simplification.
Its behavior is investigated along with another procedure based on multifreedom constraints and compared with results from a reference model comprising detailed threads discretization. Viability and performance, as opposed to readily available methods, are also evaluated in light of a real-world structural analysis case.