Defining rivets in Abaqus

[givetic]

Hello!

I am trying to model a part of airplane fuselage with a metal patch connected to it over damaged area. I am trying to solve this problem using Abaqus, but its help documentation isn't so clear on using rivets. So please, if someone could explain how to define this.

Thanks!

Goran

 

[harry123456]

Please explan your problem in more detail. What do you mean exactly by using rivets? Do you want to represent them in the fuselage or want to simulate them?
Harry

 

[givetic]

Sorry if I was not clear enough. I am trying to do a static analysis of a part of a fuselage and a patch connected to it by a set of rivets. What I need is a way to define the rivets as some kind of connecting property, so basically, that would be simulating the rivet connection between two surfaces.
Do you think the probelm could also be solved by modelling actuall rivets as solid bodies connected to the fuselage and the patch, also defined as solids, or is there a more elegant way to solve this problem?

Thanks,

Goran

 

[brep]

There are a multitude of ways of doing this, and generally companies have evolved various methods to to this very thing.

One way is to use a distributing coupling constraint between a reference point and an underlying surface (you can specify a radius of influence on the surface and thus the distributing coupling is a MESH INDEPENDENT entity...). Do this for each surface, then use a connector element to join (at the reference point) the two surfaces. The behavior of the connector element can be as adjusted as required (rigid, linear beam, plastic behavior with damage, etc). Try this in /CAE on a test model... it's pretty easy.

 

[givetic]

Finally I managed to solve the problem!

Thanks a lot!

Goran