Fatigue strength for bolts and nuts having slight pitch difference considering incomplete threads of nut

Abstract

The high strength bolts and nuts are widely used in engineering structures. To investigate the pitch difference on the fatigue strength of bolt, a slight pitch difference is considered between the bolt and nut. Here, the pitch of the nut is α μm larger than the pitch of the bolt. The fatigue experiment is conducted with varying pitch difference. The results show that the fatigue life is extended to about 1.5 times of the one of normal bolt and nut by introducing the suitable pitch difference under the high stress amplitude. According to the detailed observation on the fractured specimens, it is found that the fractured positions and the crack distributions vary depending on the pitch difference. To clarify the improvement mechanism of the fatigue strength, the finite element method is applied to calculate the stress amplitude and mean stress at each bottom of bolt threads. It is found that the finite element analytical model considering the incomplete nut threads is useful for predicting the crack initiation under different pitch difference introduced.