A portion of a vehicle body is analyzed to determine the dependability of the spot welds that hold the metal sheets together in various locations. The model is fixed at one end and at the center hub area and subject to horizontal and vertical forces and a torque at the other end as shown in the plot to the right. Each load varies with time independently of the other two.

The Spot welds are modeled as stiff CBARS between the sheets. Only MSC Nastran results are presently supported by this analyzer. The forces and moments of these CBAR elements are recovered in the FE analysis and used in a subsequent spot weld fatigue analysis. The actual fatigue analysis of the spot welds is based on the Total Life or S-N method.