Your task is to generate a (fatigue) strength report for a structure with – let’s say – 500 welds. Your boss needs a quick feedback if the structure is fine or needs some modifications? Welcome to LIMIT.
In many cases structures including lots of welds are modelled with shell elements. The task is to get a fast information about the validity of the current design.
In an early stage of the project two assessment strategies are used:
- Conservative settings with low quality welds and cost efficient welding procedure including one sided fillet welds. Welds with sufficiently low degrees of utilization (DoU) can be welded with this welding type and have passed.
- Use the highest possible weld quality including full penetration butt welds with a counter backing. Welds remaining critical after this indicate problems in the design of the structure!
Using the MultiEdit Option of LIMIT® it is possible to assign one weld type, e.g. one sided fillet welds to all welds of your model within one definition. Therefore, you are very fast in defining the above described weldings and in running a job.
The local definition of the necessary weld quality, weld thickness and surface treatment for each weld to ensure permissible degrees of utilization and a cost effective design can be done afterwards. This procedure requires some time and cooperation with your manufacturing department.