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ACM Welds

An ACM (Area Contact Method) weld is a special

representation of a spot weld. The weld is defined using a

solid (HEXA) element whose cross-sectional area is

equivalent to the area of the weld nugget. The solid

element is created at the exact weld location independent

of the shell elements that represent the sheet metal parts.

These solid elements are connected to the corresponding

components using RBE3 elements. The size of the solid

element is determined using the DvsT file. The nugget

diameter corresponding to the minimum thickness of the

connecting parts is obtained from the DvsT file. The size

of the hexa is calculated to match the cross-sectional area

of the weld nugget.

The length of the weld element is calculated using one of

the following methods:

(T1+T2)/2 This creates the hexa elements with a

length equal to the average component

thickness it is connecting. T1 and T2 are

the component thicknesses. The first

figure below shows the ACM weld

created using this method.

Project to

shell

This creates the hexa elements between

the component/element shell surface.

The length of the hexa element will be

equal to the actual distance between the

two connecting components/elements.

The second figure below shows the ACM

weld created using this method.

HyperMesh and BatchMesher file:///C:/Program Files/Altair/12.0/help/hm/hmbat.htm?acm_elements.htm

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