The Tightening of Bolts to Yield and Their Performance Under Load

Abstract

The mechanism of tightening bolted joints and the stress distribution in the bolt are analyzed. Measurements were made of static and dynamic strength of joints. It is shown that all bolts behave elastically when external loads are applied to the joint even when the fastener was tightened to its torque-tension yield point. It is shown that joints generally fail when the external loads are sufficient to overcome the bolt preload. Fatigue reesults show that joint fatigue strength increases with preload, and that high fatigue bolts gave an improvement over standard fasteners at all preloads.