Modeling washers in Nastran

I'm assuming you are concerned with out of plane loading here, and not in plane loading. Anyway you could post a link to a picture of your model?

Model the fastener hole and use a rigid element (RBE2) to connect the bolt node to all nodes covered by the bolt head or nut whichever is smaller. The bolt node will be the independent node and the other dependent. The dependent DOFs can be 123 (or x, y, & z translations). You could get more complicated with this if you wanted to model bearing better. This same type thing works with stiff bar elements (pin flag rotations at outer ends of bars) too.

Does this make sense?

connected

multiple

fastener

translations).

Thanks for the good advice. I tried that, but due to the geometry there's still really high stresses at the end of some of the rigid elements. It led me in the right direction, and I think I've put together a good equivalent of a washer now. I have an RBE2 constrained on TX, TY, RX, and RY attached to nodes "covered" by the washer, and on the same nodes I have DOF springs operating in the TZ direction. This configuration is mirrored for the mating surface too. The stresses look similar to what I'd expect to see in reality.

Thanks, Dave

Generally similar to what I suggested. I think covering the bolt head or nut area would be more conservative.

If you have covered the washer area, I don't think you should connect the rotation on out nodes in the RBE2. Contact does not necessarily mean the surface and washer will rotate together.

Best of luck David..