Screw fasteners and non

permanent joints, Power

Screw
Nut, Bolt, Stud, Screw

M. S. Dasgupta, BITS Pilani

Threaded Fastners
Design of machine elements needs complex geometry
and joints; single integral parts not possible
Parts are joined by fasteners and they are conveniently
classified as permanent, semi-permanent and nonpermanent joints
Permanent :Welded joints, adhesive bonding
Semi-permanent : Riveted joints
Non-permanent fasteners: Threaded / non threaded
joints
Non threaded joints- keys, pins, snap-fit etc.
Threaded joints- screws, bolts and nuts, studs etc.

Thread Standards and Definitions

Lead and multi-threaded screws

Lead is the distance moved by nut parallel to the
screw axis when the nut is given one turn.
l = p * multiplicity of threading
Single threaded, l=p
Double threaded, l=2p
Triple-threaded, l=3p

The Metric Thread

Nominal / major diameter of 12 mm

M121.75 mm
metric designation

pitch of 1.75 mm

d = major diameter
dr = minor diameter
= d - 1.226 869p
dp = pitch diameter
= d - 0.649 519p
p = pitch
H

basic ISO 68 profile with 60 symmetric threads

3
p
2

Square & Acme threads

Square thread
Knuckle thread ?

Acme thread

Power screw or Screw jack mechanism

A device used in machinery to change angular motion into
linear motion, and, usually, to transmit power
Used in machines such as universal tensile testing
machines, lead screws of lathes and other machine tools,
automotive jacks, vises, linear actuators, adjustable floor
posts and micrometers etc

Bolts/Screw
The ideal bolt length is one in which only one or two
threads project from the nut after it is tightened
Locations of stress concentration in a bolt
At the fillet
At the run-out
At the thread-root fillet in the plane of the nut
The washer face and washers are used to distribute the
load under the bolt head and nut face. It also prevent
fatigue failure of bolt that may result when the burs on
the imperfectly drilled bolt holes cut into the bolt head

Understanding Shear and Crushing failure in bolt

Understanding failure in plate (joint)

Nomenclature of bolt
(See Table A-29; page-1053)
or 0.4 mm

45o

d, Nominal dia or
major dia

2d 6

Threaded length , LT 2d 12
2d 25

L 125
d 48
125 L 200
L 200

Table A-29; page-1053

CAP screws

Fillister

Flat

Socket; may be hexagonal or square

See Table A-30, page-1054 for dimensions.

Machine screws

notice that there is no shank

driven all the way up to the head
into the part
sometimes having a hole for
screw head to seat in the part

Hexagonal nut

Jam nuts: they are thinner

(a) end view, general; (b) washer-faced regular nut; (c) regular nut chamfered on both
sides; (d) jam nut with washer face; (e) jam nut chamfered on both sides.

See Table A-31, page-1055 for dimensions.

Nut Varieties

Locking Mechanisms

Special purpose bolts & markings on bolt head

Bolts with no markings are low strength

Table A31; Dimensions of Hexagonal Nuts

Note: the dimension H includes the washer face thickness which is

normally 0.4 mm.

Terminologies

Grip length , l ld lt

Fastener Length, L l H

-Roundup Table A-17

Length of unthreaded portion in grip, ld L LT

Length of threaded portion in grip, lt l ld
L 125
d 48
2d 6

Threaded length , LT 2d 12 __ __ 125 L 200

2d 25
L 200

Grip length, l ' h min t2 , d

2 2
Fastener Length, L h 1.5d
Length of useful unthreaded portion,
ld L LT

Length of the useful threaded portion,

lt l 'ld

Bolt Stiffness
Scenario of
springs
in
series

At E
kT
lt

Ad

d 2
4

1 1 1

k k1 k 2

Ad E
kd
ld

k1 k 2
k
k1 k 2

k d kt
kb
k d kt

Ad At E
kb
Ad lt At ld

; area of the shank (unthreaded) portion

At = Thread tensile stress area from Table 8-1

Table 81 (p:412) Diameters and Areas of Metric Threads.

dr = minor diameter
= d - 1.226 869p
dp = pitch diameter
= d - 0.649 519p

The mean of dr and dp was

used to compute the
tensile-stress area.

Joints- Member Stiffness

Scenario of
springs
in
series

1
1 1 1 1
1
....
k m k1 k 2 k 3 k 4
ki

When one of the members

is a soft gasket, km is
simply the gasket stiffness.

If there is no gasket, the stiffness of the members is rather

difficult to obtain, except by experimentation, because the
compression spreads out between the bolt head and the nut
and hence the area is not uniform.
Itos ultrasonic technique method shows that the pressure
stays high out to about 1.5 bolt radii and falls off farther
away from the bolt and suggested to use pressure cone
method for stiffness calculation.

Joints- Member Stiffness

Figure 815
Compression of a member with the equivalent elastic
properties represented by a frustum of a hollow cone.
Here, l represents the grip length.

The Theory of the Frustum of a Hollow Cone

P.dx
d
EA

2
2

D d
A (r ri ) x tan
2 2

2
o

D d
Dd

x tan
x tan

2
2

P
dx

.E 0 x tan D d 2x tan D d 2

P
2t tan D d D d

ln
.Ed tan 2t tan D d D d
.Ed tan
k
ln 2t tan D d D d
2t tan D d D d
P

Resultant member stiffness:

If for ith member,

.Ei d tan
ki
2ti tan Di d Di d
ln

2
t
tan

d
D

d
i
i
i

i=1, 2, n

1
1 1 1 1
1
....
km k1 k2 k3 k4
kn

When all members are made of same material then we will use only two
identical frusta arranged back to back, and hence

1
1 1 1 1 2

k m k1 k 2 k k k
k
km
2

km

Ed

. tan
2t tan D d D d
2 ln

2
t
tan

d
D

Resultant member stiffness

km

Ed

. tan
2t tan D d D d
2 ln

2t tan D d D d

Ito suggested an angle = 45 to use, but Little reports that this overestimates the
clamping stiffness. When loading is restricted to a washer-face annulus (hardened steel,
cast iron, or aluminum), the proper apex angle is smaller. Osgood reports a range of 25
33 for most combinations.

If is 30o

0.5774 .Ed
km

1.155t D d D d
ln
1.155t D d D d

Resultant member stiffness

If the members of the joint have the same Youngs modulus E with
symmetrical frusta back to back, then they act as two identical springs
in series (i.e. km = k/2). Using the grip as l = 2t and dw as the diameter
of the washer face, the spring rate of the members to be
.Ed tan
km

l tan d w d d w d
2 ln
l tan d w d d w d
If is 30o and D is taken as the waster face diameter dw.
The washer face diameter is roughly 1.5 the major diameter of the bolt.

0.5774 Ed
km
0.5774 l 0.5d
2 ln 5

0
.
5774
l

2
.
5
d

Resultant member stiffness

Wileman et al. FEM results for the same situation: when all members were
made of same material and hence having same Youngs modulus.

km
A exp( Bd / l )
Ed

Use table 8-7 to read A and B

or use graph.

A, B are constants; l is the grip length;

d is the major diameter of bolt.

Bolt Strength
According to SAE or ASTM, the bolt strength is specified
by its minimum tensile strength and its minimum proof
strength
The proof load is the maximum load (force) that a bolt can
withstand without acquiring a permanent set (i.e. first
measurable deviation from elastic behavior, which is
approximately equal to 0.0001 in )
The proof strength is the quotient of the proof load and the
tensile-stress area
Use Table 811 (page:435) for proof strength of steel
For other materials, take Sp= 0.85 Sy

Estimation of Preload, Fi
For both static and fatigue loading
0.75 Fp for nonpermanent connection s, reused fasteners
Fi
for permanent connection s
0.90 Fp

where Fp is the proof load, obtained from the equation,

Fp = At Sp
Here
At is the tensile stress area obtained from Table 8-1
Sp is the proof strength obtained from Table 811

Load Shared by Bolt and Member

Tension joints- The External load

Pb Pm
k
k

Pm Pb m or Pb Pm b
kb km
kb
km

and
P Pb Pm

kb P
Fb Pb Fi
Fi CP Fi
kb k m
km P
Fm Pm Fi
Fi (1 C ) P Fi
kb k m
where

is stiffness constant of the joint

Fm 0

Fm 0

Relating Bolt Torque to Bolt Tension

The torque required to produce a given preload
Fi d m l fd m sec Fi f c d c
Fi d m tan f sec Fi f c d c

2 d m fl sec
2
2 l f tan sec
2
The dia of the washer face of a hexagonal nut is the same as the width across
flats and equal to 1.5 times the nominal size. Therefore the mean collar dia is

(d 1.5d )
dc
1.25d
2
d m tan f sec
T

2d l f tan sec

0.625 f c Fi d KFi d

Where K is called torque coefficient

Relating Bolt Torque to Bolt Tension

The coefficient of friction depends upon the surface smoothness,
accuracy, and degree of lubrication. On the average, both f and fc are
about 0.15.
The interesting fact is that K = 0.20 for f = fc = 0.15 no matter what
size bolts are employed and no matter whether the threads are coarse
or fine.

Table 815 :Torque Factors K

Load factor for statically loaded

tension joint with preload

Fb resultant bolt load

Pb Fi CP Fi

b tensile stress in bolt Fb /A t (CP Fi )/A t

The limiting value of b is the proof strength S p
S p proof strength (CnP Fi )/A t
n load factor

S p A t - Fi
CP

Problem:
Fig illustrates the connection of a cylinder head to a pressure vessel
using 10 bolts and a confined gasket seal. The effective sealing
diameter is 150 mm. A=100, B=200, C=300, D=20, E=20 (all in
mm). The cylinder is used to store gas at a static pressure of 6
MPa. ISO class 8.8 bolts with a diameter of 12 mm have been
selected. Find load factor n?

Cylinder head is steel (E = 207 GPa )

Cylinder is grade 30 cast iron (E = 100 GPa)

Fatigue Loading of Tension Joints

For a general case with constant preload and an external
load on per bolt is fluctuating between Pmin to Pmax.
Fb min CPmin Fi

Fb max CPmax Fi

Fb max Fb min
a
2 At

Fb max Fb min
m
2 At

C Pmax Pmin
a
2 At

C Pmax Pmin Fi
m

2 At
At

Substitute the above midrange and amplitude stresses in

Goodman, Gerber and ASM E elliptic failure equations
to solve for fatigue loading.

Fatigue Loading of Tension Joints

The statistics indicate that the bolts under dynamic loading failed 65% in the
thread at the nut face, 20% at the end of the thread (at the runout point) and 15%
under the head.

Table 817
Fatigue Stress- Concentration Factors Kf for Threaded Elements

Table 817
Fully Corrected Endurance Strengths for Bolts and Screws with Rolled Thread

Fatigue Loading of Tension Joints

In the common bolted joints of pressure cylinders, the
external load varies from a lower extreme of P=0 to the
upper extreme of P itself.
In this case
1
1 CP Fi Fi CP
a max min

2
2 At At At 2 At
m

Fi CP Fi
1
1 CP Fi

max min

2
2 At
At
At 2 At
At

The equation of the load hence is,

a m i

Fatigue Loading of Tension Joints

Goodman
Sa Sm

1
S e Sut

Gerber

ASME elliptic
2

Sa Sm
1

S e Sut

Sa

Se

Sm
1
S
p