Hello,

As part of an FEA stress simulation I am modeling a clevis-blade-pin joint.

Please note this is the exact scenario solidworks officially recommends to use the pin connector. (See below). I do not need to know the stress distribution in the pin but need to know the stress distribution in nearby components. They specifically recommend this is as an alternative to modeling contact in the joint with the only caveat that we cannot know exact local stresses in the pin.

When I run this simulation I get absurd results.

What am I doing wrong here?

I believe what happening is the the 'pin connector' is really acting like a 'weld connector' -- 'welding' the cylindrical faces together. There is no provision for contact in the joint. This means that when a transverse load is applied to a joint with the pin connector (an extremely common scenario in mechanical design) the load distribution in adjoining components is ficitonal as the software is simplistically bonding cylindrical faces, not modeling the behavior of the pin bearing on one side of the face only.

What do you all do to model this type of joint when doing analysis of assemblies?

Thanks,

Matt