Implementing connections to various sheet metal components of a rear door using ANSA.
Objective:
Implement connections using different techniques on the rear door model.
Procedure:
1. Import the FEA model of a rear door into ANSA interface.
2. Perform an initial geometry check and fix the errors if any.
3. We will begin adding connections by assigning bolts to the necessary holes. A 3D point is created at COG of the hole.
It is converted in to a bolt using the connections manager. In the connections manager, the required data such as assigning planes, search distance and type of zones are added in to the model.
4. After the bolts, the two hinges were connected. At each hinge, the upper and bottom holes were connected rigidly using and RBE2 connection. All the DOFs were restricted except the rotational motion in Z-axis. The master node of both the upper and bottom RBE2 connections are connected in the same manner as an RBE2 connection.
5. The reinforcements provided inside the door are connected using cluster RBE2 connections at he ends and spotwelds at other locations.
6. The door handle is not modeled for the analysis. Hence, the holes where the handle rests are connected using a RBE2 connection. At the the master node, a mass of 0.0001 tonnes is added to resemble the weight of the handle.
7. For the rear door, there are two windows. One is sliding and the other is a fixed one. At the sliding window, black weather sealant is attached at the perimeter of the window and also at the inside at the lower side. The fixed window has weather sealant all over the four sides from the outside.
Since, the soft rubber sealant cannot be modeled it is assumed to be as a CBUSH connection with a nominal stifness to act as a sealant under practical conditions.
Conclusion:
All the necessary and required connections are provided using different techniques. The main components out of all of them were the sealants all around the windows, door handle, reinforcements and hinges.
Different types of connections used were cluster RBE2, bolt, CBUSH, multi node RBE2, two node RBE2.
Therefore, the model of a rear door is ready for further analysis.