Patent Document ID: 10055524
Application ID: 15138891
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for finite element modeling and analysis of a structural product, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the apparatus to implement at least: a pre-processing system configured to produce a finite element model of a structural product including component parts joined by a fastener, the finite element model representing the component parts and fastener by respective meshes of elements joined as are the component parts and fastener, the respective meshes of elements including shell or solid elements for the component parts, beam elements representing a shear and bending stiffness of the fastener, and spring elements representing a bearing stiffness of the fastener, at least one spring element of the spring elements having an axial offset from the shell or solid elements with respect to an axis of the fastener; and a processing system configured to perform a finite element method (FEM) failure analysis of the finite element model under an external load that is transferable from the component parts to the fastener, and thereby transferrable between the beam elements and spring elements, the FEM failure analysis being configured to produce an output that indicates a behavior of the fastener based at least in part on the axial offset of the at least one spring element, and the FEM failure analysis being configured to predict a component failure rate of the fastener based on the behavior.