A friend design a machine manufactured in welded steel plates, this machine was modeled in Solidworks 2013, creating all welded part and assembly. Subsequently, he developed studies stress and fatigue, using the Simulator Solidworks.
I've checked at the design. When I run the command "interferes detection" the result is 40 small interference in the assembly.
I have question, Is valid this study FEA if the plates (part) were overlapped in the model?
Normally I have been unable to even mesh a solid with overlapping parts so my first answer would be that the FEA is invalid. Reflecting on the overlap issue, since nodes must transfer displacements/loads to connected nodes I can't imagine how this would work. The only possibility would be if SW could ignore the overlapped region and somehow insert a boundary between the two items in order to even mesh. I would still certainly mistrust any high readings in those affected areas.