The software simulates a bolt connector by rigidly connecting the bolt head to the plate, thus, if we consider 2 plates attached with a non-preloaded bolt:

pulling the plates sideways will shear the bolt.

but when running the simulation I found a bending moment on the bolt. I expected to find only shear force.

is there a workaround to the problem? I have a complex model using bolts and using solid bolts with contacts will make the simulation run forever...

I am only intrested in finding the reaction on each bolt.

by the way, if I preload the bolt enough for the friction between the plates to eqwal the external force, the results make sense.