Connecting lug analysis

The lug is welded firmly to a massive structure at one end. The other end contains a hole. When it is in service, a bolt will be placed through the hole of the lug.

Figure 1. Sketch of the connecting lug.

You have been asked to determine the static deflection of the lug when a 30 kN load is applied to the bolt in the negative 2-direction. Because the goal of this analysis is to examine the static response of the lug, you should use Abaqus/Standard as your analysis product. You decide to simplify this problem by making the following assumptions:

  • Rather than include the complex bolt-lug interaction in the model, you will use a distributed pressure over the bottom half of the hole to load the connecting lug (see Figure 1).

  • You will neglect the variation of pressure magnitude around the circumference of the hole and use a uniform pressure.

  • The magnitude of the applied uniform pressure will be 50 MPa: 30 kN/ (2 × 0.015 m  ×  0.02 m).

After examining the static response of the lug, you will modify the model and use Abaqus/Explicit to study the transient dynamic effects resulting from sudden loading of the lug.