Bolted End plate Abaqus

[11LUU]

Hi I am fairly new to using Abaqus.

I have a created a steel beam column connection. The beam is connection to the column with a bolted end plate. It has been created with C3D8 hex elements. The contact between the bolt shank and the inside of the bolt hole is friction less. The normal behavior between the bolt head and end plate/column is defined with Tangential behavior as penalty friction coefficient is 0.2 and normal behavior is hard contact default. The contacts use small sliding. The material properties are correct for both the bolt and column.

The load is applied cyclically by means of a displacement at beam tip.

When I plot the load against the displacement the connection is too stiff. I have tried changing the coefficient of friction and this has not worked.Is anybody able to advise if I am using suitable contact interactions? Also I appear to have the bolt head penetrate the column slightly on the last few cycles?

Thanks for any help

 

[corus]

Over stiffness may be due to too few elements being used. Also make sure the dimensions of the bolt reflect the effective area of the bolt, or the tensile area of the bolt as it's called. A few pictures of the mesh might help to get better advice.