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Tutorial on the Basics of Bolted Joints
Appying an External Force to a Bolted Joint
A model can often be of help in understanding why the bolt does not sustain the fu
Figure 2 is an attempt to illustrate the load transfer mechanism involved in a bolted
fastener. In the case of this fastener no significant load increase would be sustained
applied load exceeded the fastener's preload. (Preload is the
term used for a bolt's clamp force.)
With the special fastener shown, the bolt is free to move within
its casing, a compression spring is included within the casing
so that if the bolt is pulled down the spring will compress. A
scale on the side of the casing indicates the force present in the
spring and hence the force present in the shank of the bolt.
Figure 2A illustrates this special fastener in its untightened
condition.
The bolt is now inserted through a hole in a support plate
and a bracket attached to the special fastener by securing a
nut to the threaded shank. If the nut is now rotated so that
the head of the bolt is pulled down, the spring will be
compressed. If the nut is rotated so that 2 force units are
indicated on the casing, the compressive force acting on
the spring will be 2 and the tensile force in the bolt shank
will also be 2. This is illustrated in figure 2b; this is like a
tightened bolt without any working load applied.
If a weight is now added to the bracket (figure 2c) of value
1, then the initial reaction is to think that the load in the
bolt must increase, otherwise what happens to the
additional force? Surprisingly it will keep at its existing
value of 2 - it will not 'feel' any of the additional force. To
visualise why this is so - imagine what would happen if the
load in the bolt did increase. To do this it would compress
the spring more and a gap would be made between the
bracket and the plate. If such a gap was to form then it would mean that there would be 2 units of force acting
upwards - due to the spring, and 1 unit of force acting downwards from the applied weight. Clearly this force
imbalance would not occur. What does happen is that the effect of the applied load is to decrease the clamp
force that exists between the plate and the bracket. With no load applied the clamp force is 2 units, with the load
applied this decreases to 1 unit of force. The bolt would not actually 'feel' any of the applied force until it
exceeded the bolts clamp force.
Older design procedures proposed calculation methods based
upon the idea that the bolt will not 'feel' any of the applied load
until it exceeds the bolts clamp force. That is, the bolt should
be sized so that its clamp force is equal to the external load
after a factor of safety has been included. With the special
fastener used in this example the stiffness of the fastener is far
smaller than the stiffness of the plate and bracket it clamps.
Practical fasteners differ from that shown in figure 2 in that
elongation of the fastener and compression of the clamped
parts occurs upon tightening. This compression results in the
bolt sustaining a proportion of the applied load. As the applied
force reduces the clamp force existing within the joint an
additional strain is felt by the bolt which increases the force it
sustains. The amount of the additional force the bolt sustains is
smaller than the applied force to the joint. The actual amount
of force the bolt sustains depends upon the ratio of stiffnesses
of the bolt to the joint material.
The best way to understand and visualise how the force
sustained by the bolt depends upon the joint stiffness is by the use of joint diagrams. These are the subject of
the next page in this basics of bolted joints tutorial.
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