Modelling of a Glued Bolt Joint in Finite Element

Abstract: This report presents a master thesis project at KTH at the school of Engineering Science. The project is done in collaboration with ABB Robotics, a company who develops industrial robots. A robot consists of several parts and the last structural part is the wrist. During the project, a glued bolt joint, commonly named hybrid joint, in the wrist was investigated. The glued bolt joint mounts a protecting cover to the wrist and is a vital component to prevent leakage and provide structural strength to the wrist. The project's purpose was to create a time efficient and accurate methodology how to model the glue bolt joint in Finite element. Four different modelling methods of the adhesive layer were developed. One method includes friction contact, one method includes glue spring contact, one method includes solid element, and the last method includes cohesive elements. The developed methods were based on the pre-study and a previous master thesis project collaborated with the company. The modelling methods were verified against lab measurement where stresses in the wrist and bolt stresses were measured. Furthermore, to include the bolt preload in the models, a modelling and post-processing method was developed. The results showed similar simulated and measured von Mises stress in the structure of the wrist. However, the simulated bolt stress was significantly higher compared to the measured bolt stress for all methods. The main conclusion with the project is that none of the methods is accurate enough and further verification of the methods needs to be done before an accurate method can be determined.