A gasket joint analysis involves the same general steps that are involved in any Mechanical APDL 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. Perform this step as you would in any typical analysis. (See Building the Model in the Basic Analysis Guide and 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 in this chapter for more details on this topic, and in particular, see Element Selection for a table of corresponding structural and interface elements.
Define material. Use TB,GASKET to define the gasket joint material. You can use TB,GASKET to define four types of data input: general parameters, transverse shear stiffness, compression (loading), and tension (unloading). You specify the type using
TBOPT. You then input the sets of data using the TBDATA and TBPT commands, as applicable. You can also plot most of the gasket data types using the TBPLOT command. See Material Definition in this chapter for more details on this topic.Mesh the model. Use the AMESH or VMESH commands to mesh the structural element types, and use the IMESH command to mesh the gasket layer. Special restrictions apply to the IMESH command in terms of matching the source and target. Also, the order in which you execute these commands is critical. You can also mesh interface layers using the VDRAG command, and can generate interface elements directly using the EGEN command. Each of these commands involve special considerations for interface elements. See Meshing Interface Elements in this chapter for more details on this topic.
Solve. There are special solving considerations when you perform a gasket joint analysis. These are primarily concerned with the gasket element stiffness loss, and the gasket element's use with contact elements. See Solution Procedure and Result Output in this chapter for more details on this topic.
Review Results. You can print or plot any of four gasket output items: stresses (also pressure), total closure, total inelastic closure, and thermal closure, using the PRESOL, PRNSOL, PLESOL, PLNSOL, or ESOL commands. You can also use these items with the *GET command in POST1. See Reviewing the Results in this chapter for more details on this topic.