mid-plane mesh bolt connections?

[jkmalagi]

I have an assembly of 3 sheetmetal parts; two brackets (.09" thk) & a base plate (.06" thk), that are connected together by 8 bolts.

As I understand, I should not use plate - meshing for this type of sheetmetal analysis & I don't want to do a thin layered mesh of brick elements (too many elements).  I am unable to create bolt joint when I mesh using mid-plane meshing.

What is the recommended process to create the bolted joints between the these parts? Also, what are the ways to create bolted connections/simulate bolted connections when we do mid-plane meshing?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

Jay

[jkmalagi · Accepted solution]

I got an answer from an Algor Y! groups. Basically, in the absence of 3D data, bolt wizard will not work for mid-plane. I would need to manually create connections between surfaces to simulate the bolt with pre-load.

[bryan_mcnatt]

Still, would be nice to generate bolt-like beams between two plates (mid-planes) offset from each other like we can do with 3D models/meshes of two plates in contact.  I have very large plates with lots of relatively small holes.  They are offset/spaced apart from each other by small posts.  I'm either going to have to do the work to manually place the bolts/beams OR do the work to mesh and run the model as 3D.  I need a first-pass, rought-order of magnitude result and the 3D option will take longer to solve than I'd like due to the anticipated large number of 3D elements.

If there's an alternative/creative approach to such problems I'm all ears.

Thanks!