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HOME > ARCHIVE > BREAKING DOWN TOLERANCE STACK-UP

Breakingdowntolerancestackup
Atechniquetopredicttheeffectsoftolerancestackuponassemblyforcesand
stressescombinesarigidbodyassemblymodelwithafiniteelementanalysis.
MachineDesign

Apr18,1997
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KARLMERKLEY
KENCHASE
BrighamYoungUniversity
Provo,Utah

EDITEDBYMARTHAK.RAYMOND

Tolerancevariationinassembliesresultsfromthreesources:size,form,andkinematics.
Sizevariationcomesfrominconsistentdimensionallength.Formvariationisdueto
geometricdifferencessuchasflatnessorcylindricity.Kinematicvariationisproducedby
smalladjustmentsbetweenmatingpartsinresponsetodimensionalandgeometric
irregularities.Duringassembly,tolerancesineachpartcanaccumulatetocreatelarge
residualstackups,inducingpoorproductperformanceandhighcost.
Flexibleassembliescontainingnonrigidparts,produceanadditionalcomplexityto
toleranceprediction.Theseassemblies,constructedofthinsheetmetal,fiberglass,
plastics,orrubber,candeformsubstantiallyfromtheirgeometricalshapebythenatureof
theirweightorflexibilityorbyassemblyforcesappliedduringthemanufacturingprocess.
Severaltolerancemodelsaccountforthestackupprobleminassemblieswithrigid
componentsandpointtoavarietyofsolutions.Onemethod,however,hasbeenapplied
earlyinthedesignprocessandcalculatesstressesinrigidassembliesconsistingofflexible
parts.
BUILDINGTOLERANCEMODELS
OnetolerancemodeldevelopedatBrighamYoungUniversity,basedonaDirect
LinearizationMethod,usesalinearapproximationofnonlinearassemblyfunctions.Even
simpleassemblies,suchasapininsertedinahole,aredescribedbycomplexlinear
equations.DLMhaslessthan1%errorinpredictingtheeffectsoftolerancestackupfora
widerangeofassemblies.Anotheradvantageofthemethodisthatitframesthetolerance
analysisprobleminfamiliartermssuchasdatums,vectors,andkinematicjoints.Fora
completerigidbodytoleranceanalysis,theDLMmodelerisavailableinTI/TOL3D+from

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TexasInstruments.Thispackageisintegratedwiththeparametriccapabilitiesof
Pro/Engineer,asolidmodelingsystemfromParametricTechnologiesCorp.
Thesoftwarealsohandlesfunctionssuchasestimatingthenumberofrejectsinasetof
assembliesandindicatingcriticalcomponentdimensions.Italsoindicatesareasproneto
gapsorinterferencesandgivesastatisticalvariationforthesevalues.

Thoughthesetoolsareusefulfordealingwithpurelygeometricquantities,theydont
considerinherentflexibilityofparts,aconcernwhenusingthinshellcomponents.A
slightlywarpedairplaneskin,forexample,canberivetedinplace,creatingresidual
stresses.Thesestresses,especiallyincompositeparts,mayleadtofailure.Atechnique
calledlinearcontactanalysisdeterminestheprobabilityoffailureduetospecified
tolerancevariations.
Thismethodcalculatescontactstressesinpartssuchaspressfitcylindersusingfinite
elementmethods,andrequirescontactoverentirematingsurfaces.Thepointswherethe
matingsurfacescontactaredescribedasthenodesinamodel.Thetechniqueincludes
severalassumptions.First,smallgeometricvariationsinapartcreateinsignificant
changesinthepartstiffness.Inaddition,frictionbetweenthepartsisnegligibleandthe
materialintheassemblybehaveslinearly.
Ademonstrationofthetechniquestartsbybringingtwopartsintocontact,forexample
boltingtwopiecesofsheetmetaltogether,tocreateinterferenceorcloseanassemblygap,
0.Thegapisthesumofthedisplacementsoftheindividualpartstotheirfinal
equilibriumpointsuchthat:
0=a+b
whereaandbarethedeformationsrequiredtoclosethegap.
ApplyingHookeslawtoeachpart:

Closingthegapbringstheforcesineachspringtoequilibriumsuchthat:
Fa=Fb=Feq
Bycombiningequations,0isdefinedas:

Becausethegapistheknownquantity,itsvalueissubstitutedtosolveforBecausethe

gapistheknownquantity,itsvalueissubstitutedtosolveforFeq:

Instressanalysis,displacementcarriesthemostsignificant.Substitutingforceequations
intodisplacementequations,calculatesdisplacementsofindividualcomponentsas
describedby:

Thedisplacementsofaandbdependonthestiffnessofthematingparts.
Todesignboltedorbondedjointsinassemblies,extendtheresultstoamatrix
formulationdescribingtheclosuredeformationssuchas:

where{a},{b},and{0}aredisplacementvectorsandKaandKbarestiffnessmatrices.
Solvingthreematrixinversions,however,isnumericallytricky,evenwithoutiterationsor
convergencedifficulties.Asimplermethodcondensesthesematricessothatthevaluesof
theelementsarenumericallyreducedtotermscalledsuperelements.Dealingwith
smallermatricesissimpler,andthisprocessmakesthestiffnessmatricesthesamesizeso
thattheycanbeaddedormultiplied.
ConsideralinearassemblyofspringswithsubassembliesAandB.Thisisaone
dimensionalseriesspringproblemthateasilysolveswithoutsoftware.Thespringlengths
aresubjecttorandommanufacturingvariations.EachspringinsubassemblyAhasan
unloadedlengthofL40.01andeachspringinsubassemblyBhasanunloadedlengthof
L30.01.AssumeeachtoleranceTrepresentsa3variationinlength.Addthe
componenttolerancesbyarootsumsquarestechniquetoobtainastatisticalestimateof
eachsubassemblysvariation.Thestatisticalassemblyvariationduetotheaccumulated

componenttolerancesis:

Thegapvariationbetweenthefreelengthofthetwospringsubassembliesisdefinedby
therootsumsquaresofthevariationofeachsubassemblysothat:

IfthenominallengthsofAandBareequal,gapvariationisthemaximumprobable
differencebetweentheendsofthespringsduetomanufacturingerrors.Springswith
unequalnominallengthsrequireadditionalcalculationsbasedonanaveragegap.
Forexample,twosetsofspringsmightbeassembledbystretchingoneandcompressing
theotheruntiltheyarethesamelength.Thisdeformationresultsinaspringforcethat
dependsongapsize.Theequilibriumpositionofthecombinedassembly,mustbea
functionofspringstiffness.Whenthespringsactassimpletrusselements,thestiffness
matricesforeachassemblyare:


Thecondensedsuperelementmatricesaredescribedby:

Theseresultsmaybesubstitutedintotheclosureequations:

BecausesubassemblyAhasmorecomponentsandalargervariationthansubassemblyB
theresultingdeformationsrepresentastatisticalvariationinthespringsdisplacementin
eachsubassembly.
Theassemblyforcerequiredtoclosethegapisproportionaltothestatisticaldeformation
ofthesprings.Thenominalforceineachspringsubassemblyiszerowhentheideal
lengthofeachsubsetisequaltoL.However,accountingforthe3variationinthe
lengthsinducesanequilibratingforceof:

ineachsubassembly.
Thisanalysiscanbeappliedtoassembliesconsistingofflexibleparts,suchasblocks
pressfitinsideabase.MSC/PatranandMSC/NastranfromMacNealSchwendlerCorp.

calculatessolutions.MSC/Patrandefinesafiniteelementmodelandsuperelements.The
superelementstiffnessmatricesareassembledusingMSC/Nastranandmatrix
manipulationsareperformedwithMatlabfromTheMathWorks.
Asasecondexample,considerthreeblocksthatfitinsideabase.Bydescribingtheparts
asrigidbodies,thesolutionusesassumptionsforaonedimensionaltolerancestackup
problem.However,whenconsideringdeformations,theproblembecomestwo
dimensional.
Theassemblysnominaldimensionsaresuchthattheblocksarepressfitintothebase.
Thenominalinterferenceis0.025in.withatolerancenomorethan0.025in.Summing
thenominalandvariableinterferencesgivesarangeof0to0.05in.Thepartshavea
yieldstrengthof70ksiandarerequiredtobeassembledwithoutyielding.Theproblemis
todeterminethenumberofrejectedparts.

First,constraintheFEmodelintheXandYdirectionsatthemidpointofthebase.The
restofthebaseisonrollers,androllersarealsobetweentheblocksandbasetoallow
kinematicadjustments.Assumethatthefrictionisveryhighbetweenthematingsurfaces
ontheleftandrightedgessothatthenodesontheverticaledgeswillmovetogether.The
blocksarethickrelativetotheirlengthandwidth,sotheproblemismodeledwithplane
strainfiniteelements.
Inthemodel,theblocksfitexactlyinsidethebase.Nominaldimensionsareusedtocreate
thefiniteelementmodelsincesmallvariationsingeometrydontchangepartstiffness.
Oncethedisplacementsalongtheboundariesareknown,theinteriorstressesand
displacementscanbecalculatedforeachpart.
Thepressurefromtheinterferencefitcausesthebasetoexpandhorizontallywiththe
greatestdeflectioninthesiderails.Theblockscontracthorizontallywiththegreatest
contractionnearthebase.

However,thepeakstressis102ksi,whichexceedsa70ksidesignlimit.Infact,the
materialexceedstheplasticlimitandcanneverreach102ksi.Becausetheanalysis
describesdeformationsinthelinearrange,asimplescalefactorof70/102appliedtothe
maximuminterferencereducesmaximumstress.Allstressesanddisplacements
throughouttheassemblyarereducedbythesamefactor.
Assuminginterferencehasanormaldistributionandthestress/strainrelationshipis
linear,thesimplescalefactormaybeappliedtothestatisticalstressarea.
Astheinterferencevariesfrom0to0.05in.,maximumVonMisesstressintheassembly
variesfrom0to102ksi.ThemeanVonMisesstressis51ksiandcorrespondstothemean
interferenceof0.025in.Above70ksi,thedistributionforthemaximumstressis
unknownfromthelinearanalysisduetodiscontinuityattheyieldlimit.
Thefollowingexampleshowshowthemodelpredictsfailurerateofassemblies.Whenthe
stressdistributionaboutthemeanhasa3svariation,calculatethenumberofstandard
deviationscorrespondingto70ksifrom:

wherezisthezscoreofanormalizeddistribution.
Fornormaldistributions,thisvaluecorrespondsto86.86%,whichmeansthat13.14%of
allassemblieswillexceedthedesignlimitsandberejectedduetoassignedtolerances.
Thoughmaterialpropertiesextendintotheplasticregion,themodeluseslinearresultsto
predictthenumberofpartsexceedingtheyieldstrength.Thesedesignconstraintsare
typicalfornonlinearanalysisinassemblieswherepartssuchasboltsarestressedalmost
totheyieldingpointorwherecompositemembersarefunctionalwhiletheinterlaminar
sheardoesnotinducedelamination.
Forfutureapplications,thistechniqueisbeingverifiedonrealworldproblemswith
multipleelementsandtwoandthreedimensionaltolerancevariations.

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