Simplified bolt connection with beam element and rigid constraints

[FEAnalyst]

Yeah, unfortunately, this traditional approach with beam and two couplings at its ends can be very problematic in CalculiX, although there are some examples using also *EQUATION:

Modeling bolt connection with preloaded beam element

*CLOAD should be applied to the reference node of the pre-tension section. Maybe there’s an issue with the way those beam elements are attached to the solid model. CalculiX documentation suggests distributing coupling and equation constraints for that. There’s a simple example that you can try first: ** ** Structure: bolt-like structure. ** Test objective: pre-tension force with beam element. ** *NODE, NSET=Nall 1,0.000000000000e+00,0.000000000000e+00,0.000000000000e+00 2,0.00…

(https://youtu.be/AiLCzKAOdx0?is=D--kn0_HlfAKIu2C)