Bolted Joint Assembly

Advanced Solid Body Contact Options

Goal
In this workshop, our goal is to study the effect that contact stiffness specification
has on convergence and result accuracy.

Model Description
3D bolted assembly - 4 parts:
Bracket
Bushing
Nut
Bolt
Loads and Boundary Conditions:
One fixed support
45,000 N Bolt preload
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Steps to Follow:
Start an ANSYS Workbench session. Browse for and open
Bolted_Joint_ws03A.wbdb project file.
This project contains a Design Modeler (DM) geometry file
Bolted_Joint_ws03A.agdb and a Simulation (S) file
Bolted_Joint_ws03A.dsdb.
Highlight the Bolted_Joint_ws03A file and open a Simulation Session.










At this point , solve the analysis.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the contents of the model


Highlight each item in the
Geometry and
Contact branches of the
Project tree to become
familiar with the model.



Also, review the
specifications in the
Details Window for each
highlighted item.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options


Change Pretension load to:

20,000

Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the contents of the model (contd):


Note especially the
frictionless bushing to
bracket contact region. It
will be used to evaluate the
pressure profile at the
bushing-bracket interface
after the bolt preload closes
this gap.

This region is initially set up
as an asymmetric frictionless
pair using the Pure Penalty
method. Recall that this
algorithm depends on a
contact stiffness and a very
small penetration to generate
forces at the interface to
prevent penetration once
contact is established.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Under the model branch, highlight
Frictionless bushing To bracket

In the Details Window:
Change the normal stiffness specification
from Program Controlled to Manual

Change the normal stiffness factor from the
default (1) to 10.


Solve the analysis again

Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the Solution Information Branch
The red lighting bolts in the
Solution branch indicates an
incomplete Solution run.

Below the worksheet
window, the message
window contains a summary
of warnings and errors
suggesting a problem with
convergence.

By double clicking on each
message with LMB, you can
expand a message into a
separate window for easier
reading.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
In the Details of Solution Information Window, switch Solver Output to Force
Convergence. This displays the same convergence data in graphical form.

Note, the force convergence value oscillates up and down between iterations well above
the acceptable convergence criteria. After two automatic bisections, substep 1
converges. However, substep 2 ultimately fails to converge.
Review the Solution Information Branch (contd)
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Open the Solution Information Folder and highlight the Newton-
Raphson Residual Force

Clearly the source of highest residual (force imbalance) is located
along the bushing-bracket contact region.
Review the Solution Information Branch (contd)
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the Solution Information Branch (contd):
Return to the Solver Output
and scroll to near the top of
the solution information
worksheet.

In a summary listing of all the
contact pairs, find
Frictionless Bushing to
Bracket. We see that this
region is associated with Real
constant sets 15 &16.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the Solution Information Branch (contd):
Again, scroll further down the
solution information worksheet
to find the contact specifications
and calculations for this set.

Note the large default contact
stiffness (0.923e6) being used.

Given the relatively low stiffness
of the bracket feature in this
model, it is possible that the
contact stiffness being used is
too high for this application.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
We will attempt to achieve a successful
convergence by adjusting the normal
stiffness of Contact Region 6 downward
based on the feedback reviewed in the
unconverged output.
Without changing any specifications in the
current tree, duplicate the Model branch as
follows:
In the existing Project tree, highlight
Bolted_Joint_ws03A model
RMB Duplicate
Rename the new model branch to reflect
the change that will be made
Bolted_Joint_ws03A,Norm Stiff Factor = 1e-3

This will enable us to run a modified
analysis without losing the existing
information.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Under the newly created model
branch, highlight Frictionless
bushing To bracket

In the Details Window:
Change the normal stiffness specification
from Program Controlled to Manual

Change the normal stiffness factor from 10
to 1e-3.


Solve the analysis again

Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
The solution now converges successfully in 11 iterations and no bisections. This is ideal.
Bisections are a helpful automatic adjustment to achieve a converged solution, but they are
not efficient as all the CPU time from the last successfully converged solution leading up to
the bisection is wasted.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review the Solution Information of the successful run.
Verify in the Solver Output that the modified contact stiffness was used and that
solution converged successfully.
Contact Stiffness
Note: In this analysis, the first
load step calculates the
necessary interference needed
to generate the prescribed
preload. The second load step
locks the bolt pretension
element into this calculated
adjustment to achieve the bolt
pretension load.
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Under Solution Branch, RMB>Insert >Probe>Bolt Pretension










On Bolt Pretension > RMB>Evaluate Results
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review Bolt Pretension Results:
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Review Contact Results at the bushing - bracket
interface (nut side):
Open the Contact Tool Folder and Select
Frictionless - bushing To bracket
Review Contact Pressure and Penetration results for
this pair
Is 1e-3 an acceptable normal stiffness factor for this model?

The best way to ensure an accurate result with a standard contact pair is to perform a
sensitivity study with different stiffness values, stiffness updating schemes and algorithms
until results converge to the same correct answer. Too high a stiffness can produce
divergence, too low a stiffness can produce convergence but possible over penetration, an
excessive bolt pretension adjustment and ultimately an inaccurate prediction of surface contact
pressure profile.
Contact Stiffness
Advanced Solid Body Contact Options
Consider the following sensitivity study on the effects of changes to contact stiffness:
For this model, as stiffness increases, contact penetration and the required bolt pretension
adjustment decreases while maximum pressure increases. Notice also the general trend toward
more iterations and longer run times. It is also worth noting the benefit of using the automatic
stiffness updating tool between iterations and turning on Large Deflection to achieve
convergence at the default normal stiffness factor =1.0.

Specifying the right contact stiffness is highly problem dependent and is always a balance
between quality of results (accuracy) and cost (run time). Based on this study, a normal stiffness
factor of 0.10 would be satisfactory. The Augmented Lagrange contact algorithm has proven to
provide more robust contact solutions with many applications and is recommended for
frictionless or frictional contact.
Algorithm Penalty Penalty Penalty Penalty Penalty Aug-Lagrange
Normal Stiffness Factor 0.001 0.010 0.100 1.000 1.000 1.000
Stiffness Updating Scheme never never never each iteration each iteration each iteration
Large Deflection Off Off Off Off ON ON
Cum Iterations 13 15 16 16 16 16
CPU Time 254 299 324 317 377 369
Max Contact Pressure(MPa) 138.24 141.5 198 198 196 196
Contact Penetration(mm) 0.1497 0.0153 0.0021 0.0020 0.0021 0.0021
Bolt Pretension Adjust(mm) 1.7571 1.6643 1.6539 1.6539 1.6558 1.6539
Bolt Pretension Reaction(N) 45,100 44,873 44,890 44,899 45,000 45,000
Contact Stiffness