Evaluation of the Method for Lowering Stress Concentration at the Thread Root of Bolted Joints With Modifications of Nut Shape

Abstract

Many studies have been devoted to investigate how the maximum stress occurred in the bolted joint could be reduced. Patterson and Kenny suggest that a modified nut with a straight bevel at the bearing surface is effective. However, they only dealt with M30, and estimations on the nut geometry had not been necessarily sufficient. In this study, an extensive finite element approach for solving general multi-body contact problem is proposed by incorporating a “regularization method” into stiffness matrices with singularity involved; thus, numerical analyses are executed to accurately determine the optimal shape of the modified nut for various design factors. A modified nut with a curved bevel is also treated, and it is concluded that the modified nuts are significantly effective for bolts with larger nominal diameter and fine pitch, and are practically useful compared to pitch modification and tapered thread methods.