Chapter 10: Gasket Joints Simulation
Gasket joints are essential components in most structural assemblies. Gaskets as sealing components
between structural components are usually very thin and made of various materials, such as steel,
rubber and composites.
Fr om a mechanics perspective, gaskets act to transfer force between components. The primary deform-
ation of a gasket is usually confined to one direction, namely, through thickness. The stiffness contribu-
tions from membrane (in plane) and transverse shear are much smaller in general compared to the
through thickness. The stiffness contribution therefore is assumed to be negligible, although the TB
command provides options to account for transverse shear.
A typical example of a gasket joint is in engine assemblies. A thorough understanding of the gasket
joint is critical in engine design and operation. This includes an understanding of the behavior of gasket
joint components themselves in an engine operation, and the interaction of the gasket joint with other
components.
Interface elements (INTERnnn) are used to model gaskets. By default, these elements account for both
gasket through-thickness and transverse shear stiffness. However, you can modify the transverse shear
stiffness by using the transverse shear option of the gasket material data table. You can also exclude
the transverse shear stiffness via an element key option (KEYOPT) setting. For more information, see
the TB command documentation and the documentation for each interface element.
The following topics concerning gasket joint simulation are available:
10.1. Performing a Gasket Joint Analysis
10.2. Finite Element Formulation
10.3. Interface Elements
10.4. Material Definition
10.5. Meshing Interface Elements
10.6. Solution Procedure and Result Output
10.7. Reviewing the Results
10.8. Sample Gasket Element Verification Analysis (Command or Batch Method)10.1. Performing a Gasket Joint Analysis
A gasket joint analysis involves the same overall steps that are involved in any ANSYS nonlinear analysis
procedure. Most of these steps however warrant special considerations for a gasket joint analysis.
Presented below are the overall steps with the special considerations noted, along with links to applicable
sections where more detailed information is included on that topic.
- Build or import the model.There are no special considerations for building or importing the
model for a gasket joint analysis. You perform this step as you would in any typical ANSYS analysis.
See Building the Model in the Basic Analysis Guide. For further details on building the model, see
the Modeling and Meshing Guide. - Define element type.To properly simulate gasket joints, you must define structural element types
and corresponding interface element types. See Interface Elements (p. 319) in this chapter for more
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