Abstract
Connectivity of bolted joints is strongly dependent on the equilibrium relations among the pretension, the compliance of adjacent region, and the external force. The compliance of adjacent region, in particular, is evaluated by the stiffness of a hypothetical conical elastic body just beneath the head of bolts. Whereas, the connectivity would be affected by the change of the contacted area around the bolt head, when an eccentric force is applied, which results in the size change of bolt in some case. In this paper, the contact condition of bolted joint is evaluated by the use of the contact element of nonlinear FEM, the results of which are reported here in after.
