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Sriram Venkateswaran
TATA Consultancy Services, Chennai, India
Dr. Kannan Sundararajan
TATA Consultancy Services, Chennai, India
Abstract
A Bolt Modeling Wizard, similar to the Contact Wizard, was developed to facilitate modeling of bolts.
Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) scripts were used to model and mesh the bolts and Tcl/Tk was
used to design a user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). User Interface Design Language (UIDL)
was used to interface this wizard with the "Preprocessor" menu of Ansys. The current version of this wizard
models i) solid bolts with pretension, ii) bolts with BEAM4 for shank and rigid beams for head and nut iii)
bolts with BEAM4 for shank and RBE3 command for head and nut and iv) bolts with BEAM4 for shank
and shells for head and nut. Multiple generation of a solid bolt is implemented in this wizard. Solid bolts
with pretension can be replicated in the cartesian and cylindrical coordinate systems. Six-sigma
methodology was used to implement this wizard and the process capability with and without using the
wizard was measured.
Introduction
In most of the engineering applications involving assemblies, bolts are used to connect the components
together. Bolts play a key role in satisfying the functional requirements of the general assembly. Hence a
finite element analyst frequently finds himself in a situation in which he has to model a bolt. Traditionally
many methods are employed to model bolts. We have methods in which bolt shank is modeled with beam
(or link) elements, and stiff beams (spiders) or shell elements (with appropriate real constants) used for the
bolt head. RBE3 element is also used to model the bolt head regions with beams (or links) for bolt shank.
The latest technique is to use the pretension element that was specifically developed for bolt modeling. The
main advantage of using pretension elements is that one need not go through the iterative process of getting
the strain values right, which is essential with beams (or links). Whatever the method used, the process of
modeling a bolt is both time-consuming and cumbersome. This becomes even more difficult if we need to
model a large number of bolts. Our experience in handling complex models is that as the number of bolt
increases, with different real constant and material sets, it becomes more and more difficult and error-prone
to get the modeling right. The time and effort involved is enormous in the conceptual stages of design
where the baseline model goes through several revisions, which needs to be analyzed individually for
arriving at an optimized design. This coupled with the fact that the turnaround time for the whole exercise
is always under severe pressure, were the motivating factors to come up with a wizard for modeling bolts.
Methodology
Objective
Our objective is to create a bolt modeling wizard that would guide the user prompting the necessary inputs
that are needed for various types of bolt modeling through a user friendly GUI.
Scope
The following are identified as critical-to-quality (CTQs) in achieving our objective:
What are the types of modeling techniques that will be addressed through the wizard?
What parameters should be input to the wizard?
What are the derived parameters that the wizard should calculate based on the input?
In what ways can the wizard facilitate periodic generation of bolts?
Procedure
The wizard is developed using APDL scripts with Tcl/Tk for the GUI. After successful completion, the
wizard was interfaced with Ansys menus under "Preprocessor>Create" with the title "Bolt Wizard"
using UIDL as shown in Figure 1. The user starts off by clicking the "Bolt Wizard" button that brings up
the main menu of the Bolt Wizard program, as shown in Figure 2.
Keypoint 1 Keypoint 2
Keypoint 3
Figure 5. Illustration of the use of three keypoints for bolt positioning and orientation
If more than one solid bolt with the same pretension and physical dimensions are required, then the user has
to input the number of bolts including the original. This will bring up the "Copy Bolt" menu that defines the
offset values to be used for multiple bolt generation as shown in Figure 6. Note that circumferential
generation of bolts can also be accomplished by first defining a suitable cylindrical coordinate system and
specifying the coordinate system number in the input. The angle between bolts should be input in degrees.
Pretension section numbers increase from the given number according to the number of bolts. Each section
is meshed separately and the given preload is applied to each of the "K” nodes.
This menu works in the same way as the "Preprocessor>Copy" option in Ansys.
The parameters entered are passed to an APDL script, which models and meshes the bolt, applies the
pretension elements and assigns the material properties. Help brings up a detailed help on each of the
parameters through an HTML file as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. HTML help file for solid bolt
Practically, it is always possible to enter incorrect dimensions for the bolt, especially when handling large
number of bolts. To rectify this, a verify dialog box, Figure 8, was also introduced. Responding with a "No"
will undo the whole operation and gets back to the original step before bolt generation.
Figures 9 and 10 illustrate bolt replication in linear and circumferential direction respectively.
Figure 9. Bolt replication in linear direction
Figure 10. Bolt replication in circumferential direction
Modeling bolts with spiders
For modeling bolts with spiders, the "Bolt with spiders" option has to be chosen from the main menu
(Figure 12). The user is prompted with the menu shown in Figure 13, that accepts the parameters for this
option. The input shank diameter is assigned to the real constant for bolt. The head and nut height is used to
determine the length of the beam (shank). The beam length is typically taken as the sum of thickness of the
flanges plus (head height + nut height)/2 as shown in Figure 11. The bolt element type and material
property for the shank should be defined beforehand. The specified real constant number is used to create
real constant for the bolt. Similarly element type number, material number and real constant number should
be input for the spiders. A large value of Young's modulus is automatically assigned to the spider beams.
Young’s modulus and preload are used to calculate the initial strain. The calculated strain value is assigned
as real constant to the beam automatically. Keypoints are used to position the beam as before.
Head height
Head height/2
Figure 12. Bolt Wizard Main Menu Figure 13. Bolt with spiders menu
In order to facilitate the modeling of the bolt head and nut by stiff beams, two nodal components should be
defined. These nodal components define the interface between the bolt head and the flange and the nut and
the flange respectively. The copy option is not available in this version. An "Undo" option is provided with
the dialog box shown in Figure 9. Responding with a “No” will undo the whole operation. The parameters
entered in the menu are passed to an APDL script, which models and meshes the bolt and assigns the
material properties and real constants. A "Help" button pulls up an HTML file that gives instructions on
how to use the menu.
Figure 14. Bolt Wizard Main Menu Figure 15. Bolt with RBE3 menu
Names of components of nodes at the head and nut are passed as before and three keypoints are used to
locate and orient the bolt. Initial strain is calculated based on the Young’s modulus and preload and
automatically assigned as real constant to the beam. The Copy option is not available in the present version.
An "Undo" option is provided with the dialog box shown in Figure 9. Responding with a “No” will undo
the whole operation. The parameters entered in the menu are passed to the APDL script, which models and
meshes the bolt and assigns the material properties and real constants. A "Help" button pulls up an HTML
file that gives instructions on how to use the menu.
This menu is similar to the menu used to model with spiders but requires information for the shell elements
instead of spider beams. Unlike modeling bolt with spiders, the shank length is taken as the sum of the
thickness of the flanges. Thickness of the bolt head and nut is passed as real constant to the shell elements.
The pretension load here is used to calculate the initial strain. Keypoints are used to position and orient the
bolt as before. A Copy option for multiple bolt generation is not available in the present version. An
"Undo" option is provided with the dialog box as shown in Figure 9. Responding with a “No” will undo the
whole operation. The parameters entered in the menu are passed to the APDL script, which models and
meshes the bolt and assigns the material properties and real constants. A "Help" button pulls up an HTML
file that gives instructions on how to use the menu.
Verification and validation
The wizard was verified successfully for different types of bolt modeling. Verification was carried out with
various input parameters. Upon successful completion of the testing, the wizard was released for general
use.
Conclusion
A Bolt Modeling Wizard was developed, using Tcl/Tk and APDL. This wizard is interfaced with Ansys
using UIDL. Features of this wizard include four different types of bolt simulation, viz. Solid bolt, bolt with
spiders, bolt with RBE3 command and bolt with shell elements. This wizard also facilitates multiple
generations of solid bolts in the linear and circumferential directions. The utility of this wizard was
quantified by six-sigma methodology.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the management of TATA Consultancy Services for providing the
encouragement and infrastructure to carryout this work. We also thank our colleagues for all their valuable
suggestions during the development of this wizard.
References
Following are the process capability chart quantifying the process improvement in terms of z-values. In all
cases, if the time taken to model the bolt is greater than 180 sec, it is taken as a defect (i.e.
Upper Specification Limit in all cases is 180 sec). A significant improvement in z-value is obtained in each
case.
1. Process capability charts for solid bolt with and without the
use of the wizard
4. Process capability charts for bolt with shell elements with and
without the use of the wizard