Lecture 4:

Bolt Pretension
16.0 Release

ANSYS Mechanical
Advanced Connections
1

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Whenever you model a bolted structure, it might be important to include the
pretension (or preload) in the bolt caused by the tightening of the bolt.
Stresses due to
specified
pretension in bolt
Mechanical provides a convenient way to simulate bolt pretension
Automatically disconnects the nodes about midway thru shank of meshed bolt body (3D solid
and line bodies only)
Reconnects nodes with constraint equations

Uses constraint equations to define a mathematical offset with the expressed purpose of
generating the user defined preload.
2

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Features of the pretension element:

A set of pretension elements is identified as a section.

3-D line element that acts like a "hook" connecting two

halves of a bolt.
Nodes I, J are the end nodes, usually coincident.
Node K is the pretension node:
Location is arbitrary.
Has one DOF: UX (always aligned with bolt shank axis
via local coordinate system).
Used to define the preload, as an FX force or UX
displacement.
Actual line of action is in pretension load direction.

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Preload
direction
J

K
Node I
Pretension
section
Bolt solids or beams

Bolt Pretension
Pretension Load Application
When a physical bolt is pretensioned:

Turning the nut reduces the unstretched grip length of the bolt, thereby inducing

pretension
When the desired pretension is achieved and the wrench is removed, the new
unstretched grip length becomes locked

Typical Mechanical pretension loading procedure represents this same sequence

First, apply the specified pretension (usually a specified force) in one load step
Then, lock the pretension section displacement (lock the shortened grip length) in a

subsequent load step.

Once all bolts are pretensioned and locked, apply external loads in the final load step

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Pretension Load Application (contd)
Bolt pretension load can be applied to a cylindrical face, to a straight edge of a
line body, to a single body, or to multiple bodies.
Line of action of the bolt load applied to a cylindrical surface will be along cylinder axis
by default.
Line of action of bolt load applied to a line body is always parallel to line.

If you apply the Bolt Pretension load to a body, you will need to have a local
Coordinate System object in the tree.
The application of the load will be at the origin and along the z-axis of the local
coordinate system.
You can place the coordinate system anywhere in the body and reorient the z-axis.

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
There are a number of options under the Define By Column of the Bolt Pretension
Tabular Data.
The most common procedure involves a minimum of two Load Steps where a user
defined Load is applied in LS1 followed by Lock in subsequent LS2,3,etc.
Load: Applies a force as a preload. A Load field is displayed
where you enter the value of the load in force units.
Lock: Fixes all displacements. You can set this state for any step
except the first step.

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Adjustment: Applies a user defined length as a pre-adjustment (for example, to model
x number of threads).

An Adjustment field is displayed where you enter the value of the adjustment in length units.

Multiple Adjustments can be applied over multiple Load Steps.

An Adjustment can also follow or precede a Load

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension Incremental load

From ds.dat files
Conventional: Load - Lock

User defined preload ramped from zero at LS1.

Corresponding displacement required to achieve

preload is calculated, parameterized to %_FIX%
and locked at LS2.

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Conventional: Adjustment - Lock

User defined adjustment (displacement) is

ramped from zero at LS1.
Same displacement value is parameterized to
Click to edit Master text styles
%_FIX% and locked at LS2.

Mechanical: Bolt Pretension Incremental load

Increment: applies user defined offset as an
incremental sequential adjustment for challenging bolted
assemblies
Value gets added to the solved deformation from the
previous step

Is ramped on from previous step

Can follow Load, Adjustment or Open after LS1
Can be applied multiple times in sequence

Supports Restarts
Click to edit Master text styles
If a solution restart is performed from a substep of a load step including an
Increment, the increment value gets added to the solved deformation value at the
beginning of the selected restart sub-step.
9

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension Incremental load

From ds.dat files
Conventional: Load - Lock

Alternative:
. Increment - Load - Lock

Displacement is ramped from the current

solved value to the newly defined value
User defined preload ramped from the
reaction force of previous step.
Prior displacement constraint removed.
10

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Click to edit Master text styles

Bolt Pretension
Open: Effectively suppresses the load for the step so that the load has no effect on the
applied step

11

Note that in order to avoid convergence issues from having under-constrained conditions, a
small load (0.01% of the maximum load across the steps) will be applied. You can set this state
for any step.

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
If you try to apply a preload on the same face more than once, all definitions except
the first one are ignored.
Be sure that a sufficiently fine mesh exists on a face or body that contains Bolt
Pretension loads so that the mesh can be correctly partitioned along the axial direction
(that is, at least 2 elements long).
For simulating one Bolt Pretension through multiple split faces, you should apply only
one Bolt Pretension load to one of the split faces, as the Bolt Pretension load will slice
though the whole cylinder even though only part of the cylinder is selected.

12

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Care should be used when applying a Bolt Pretension load to a cylindrical face that has
bonded contact. There is a possibility that if you apply a Bolt Pretension load to a
cylinder that had a bonded contact region, the bonded contact will block the ability of
the Bolt Pretension to deform properly.

The Bolt Pretension load should be applied to cylindrical faces that contain the model
volume (that is, do not try to apply the Bolt Pretension load to a hole).

Use caution when defining bolt loads by bodies and a coordinate system because the
entire body is sliced along the local XY plane (Z=0).
13

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Body Scoping
Body scoping of a Bolt Pretension load can be to more than one body. In this
case all the scoped bodies will be cut.
There is still only a single Bolt Pretension load created but this feature allows
you to apply a bolt load to a bolt that has been cut into several bodies. This
feature is illustrated in the following figure.

14

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Bolt Pretension Reactions

Use the Probe tool in Solution branch to confirm reaction in bolt

15

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
Visualizing Bolt Pretension Elements
The PRET179 elements used for bolt pretension are actually just constraint equations.
You can visualize these constraints on the FE model as follows:
Highlight the Solution Information Branch. In the Details Window, FE Connection
Visibility:
Activate Visibility =Yes
Display = All FE Connectors

16

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension
The solver output will also list a summary of important pretension specifications for
each bolt pretension section that was created for additional confirmation
Pretension Section ID
Pretension node number
Pretension direction

9 pretension
elements created

17

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension via Joint Technology

For large deflection applications where the bolt itself is going thru a large rotation, the CEs
might become invalid. In such cases consider using a bolt pretension option available in
Joint technology as an alternate
Supports Large rotation based pretension and pretorque
loads
Supports locking in subsequent loadsteps
The preloaded Bolt needs to be sliced in advance of
analysis.
The two cut surfaces are connected by a cylinder joint.
The pretension loading is applied via Joint load (FJ,,FZ)
The loading can be locked via DJ,,UZ,%_FIX% and
DJ,,ROTZ,%FIX%
18

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Pretension via Joint Technology

Using conventional bolt pretension,

the stresses appear with significant
bending with rotation
19

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Using cylindrical joint the stress

appear without significant bending

Workshop Bolt Pretension Modeling

Please refer to your Workshop Supplement on
WS3A-bolt.wbpz

20

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Thread Modeling

Produce the bolt thread stress profile without
meshing the threads

True thread

Virtual Thread

Contact Normals computed internally based on user

defined bolt thread parameters.
Supports 3D and 2D(MAPDL only) axisymmetric models
Frictional, Frictionless, Rough and No Separation
Applicable only for standard straight threads
Small strain formulation, small rotation

Much easier to set up

Improved run time efficiency
In this test case:
True thread model solves in 22167 sec.
Virtual thread model solves in 9142 sec.
21

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Click to edit Master text styles

Bolt Thread Modeling

Build conventional surface to surface asymmetric contact
between cylindrical faces.
Define thread parameters in contact details window
Mean Pitch diameter
Thread Pitch distance
Thread angle
Starting/ending orientation points (Program Controlled
defaults to top and bottom of scoped cylindrical bolt
body center).

Click to edit Master text styles

In MAPDL, use SECTYPE and SECDATA commands

22

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Thread Modeling

Solver output records thread specifications as defined:

Click to edit Master text styles

23

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015

Bolt Thread Modeling

With sufficient mesh refinement, general stress profiles match very closely

Click to edit Master text styles

24

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

April 16, 2015