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Article: FEA gap elements: choosing the right stiffness. (finite element analysis)
- Article from:
- Mechanical Engineering-CIME
- Article date:
- June 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FEA Gap Elements: Choosing the Right Stiffness
While many structural problems can be formulated in terms of a single continuous domain, there is a large class of problems that involve contact surfaces and friction. Perhaps the most common of these is the bolted joint, but there are numerous other examples, such as electrical contacts sliding past each other, a pin bearing against the side of a hole in a plate, bolt threads bearing against the inner threads of a threaded hole, or any two surfaces in contact. To address such contact problems, many developers of finite element analysis software have included gap elements, more precisely called interface elements, in ...