Europe 
Türkiye 
United Kingdom 
Global 
Login with my Xometry account Simulating shear and bending on a welded tow hook bracket
B
I’m designing a welded tow hook bracket for a lightweight off-road trailer (max gross weight 850 kg), made from 8 mm thick mild steel plates (S355), joined with full-penetration fillet welds. I’m running a static FEA in SolidWorks to simulate pulling and angled side loads during recovery scenarios, but I’m getting unexpectedly low stress values around the weld areas, even with a reasonably refined mesh (avg. element size ~1.5 mm).
Could this be a meshing issue, or is it just an inherent limitation of the way fillet welds are represented in CAD-based FEA? I’m not sure whether I should model the welds explicitly or apply connector-based simplifications.
Suggested Topics
Topic
Replies
Views
Activity
Solidworks or Inventor for sheet metal design?
Hey, I need to create a small sheet metal enclosure for a power supply unit—mostly bent parts in 1.5 mm steel, with tabs, cutouts, and a few fastener points. I’m new to CAD and... read more
1
53
May 30
Best file format for tight-tolerance parts with GD&T annotations
Hi, I'm designing a housing component for an optical assembly, machined from anodized 7075-T6 aluminum, with several ±0.01 mm tolerances and GD&T callouts for perpendicularity and flatness. The part is quite compact (80x60x40 mm)... read more
1
101
May 13
Modeling ribs on a curved surface
hi, designing a snap-fit enclosure for a small handheld sensor (approx. 60 x 40 x 20 mm), and I need to add structural ribs to the inner shell. The issue is the inner surface... read more
2
157
May 02
Solidworks
HelloI am a mechanical engineer. I have advanced knowledge of Solidworks, meaning I know how to use every tab and command. But for design, that is for measurements, I only know how to use... read more
1
198
Apr 14
Add grip texture to a handle in Fusion 360
I want to print a 30 mm diameter handle for a handheld tool, in SLS nylon, and I’m designing the part on Fusion 360. It needs a grip texture that balances ergonomics, durability, and... read more
1
298
Mar 28