ELŐFESZÍTŐ ERŐ VÁLTOZÁSA CSAVARKÖTÉSBEN

BOLT PRELOAD VARIATION IN CYCLIC TIGHTENING

Talal Alsardia, PhD student, [email protected]
Dr. László Lovas, associate professor, [email protected]
BME Department of Railway Vehicles and Vehicle System Analysis

( 2Pπ + cosβ +μ r )
ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the pre- μr
t t
load of a bolted link under repeated tightening/ T ¿=F P n n (1)
loosening cycles. The theoretical and the empir-
ical torque-tension relationship is shortly
presented. Experimental data of zinc-coated as well as in the standard DIN 946/VDI 2230
bolts are presented for two lubrication cases. [6]:

1. INTRODUCTION
The tightening process generates preload force
in the bolted link. This force is essential to
(
M A =F V 0.159 P+ 0.578 d 2 · μG +
DKm
2
· μK )
(2)
transmit power and to prevent the separation of
and in the standard ISO 16047 [7]:
the clamped components. The estimation of the
preload is usually made in function of the bolt

( )
material’s yield strength, which varies depend- 1 P+1,154 · π· μth · d 2 D +d
T =F · + μb· o h
ing on manufacturers [1]. Too low or too high 2 P 4 (
preload can lead to the failure of the joint,
π−1,154 · μth ·
d2
therefore, several methods have been intro-
3)
duced to control the bolt clamping force, for
example, torque or angle control, bolt elonga-
tion control, and torquing control [2]. During These equations can be generalized as T=F·X,
tightening, approximately 10%-20% of the ap- where the constant X reflects the geometrical
plied torque generates a tension in the bolt to and frictional parameters of the joint. The prob-
hold clamped parts together, while the remain- lem with this structure is that it is very difficult
ing part is lost to overcome friction on the to measure friction under the bolt head and on
thread and under the bolt head [3], [4]. Figure 1 the thread. Moreover, the friction coefficients
illustrates how the torque is distributed.
change during each tightening, and it is difficult
to have a constant guess value.
However, it exists another kind of ex-
pression that relates the tightening torque T to
the generated bolt clamping force F, in function
of the bolt diameter D, and the factor K named
“nut factor” (Torque coefficient ISO 16047 [7])
as follows :

T =K · F · D (4)

Figure 1. Tightening torque composition [4] Here, the nut factor K contains all thread geo-
metry as well as friction-related constants that
In the machine element theory, usual equations are either unknown or difficult to measure.
follow this triple division of the tightening ASME Standard PCC-1 [8] states that “K is an
torque. This idea was presented by Motosh in experimentally determined, dimensionless con-
1976 [5]: stant related to the coefficient of friction”.
Equation (4) has a simple form and is easy to The technical information, the calculated
use, as it contains standard measurable data. parameter, and the assumed value of the coeffi-
In industrial applications, manufacturers cients of friction [1] for the tested bolt are sum-
often prescribe to use a new bolt and washer marized in Table 1. A total of 40 bolts were
after disassembly for safety reasons. In other used for the experiment. Figure 4 presents the
applications, dismantled fasteners are reused oiled samples of the two sizes, while Figure 5
due to economical reasons, poor maintenance, illustrates the experimental setup.
or no fastener availability. Table 1. Bolt geometry specifications
In this paper, we focus on the variation of Size M6 M8
the preload force in bolts used more than one Bolt 8.8 8.8
Grade
time. We do not observe a variation of the fric- Nut 8 8
tion at given places, but try to have an overall Thread pitch (mm) 1 1.25
view of the phenomenon. For this reason, we Metric thread profile angle, β (°) 60 60
realized experiments that simulate typical tight- Tightening torque (N.m) 10 20
ening-releasing processing on the same bolt. A d 1(mm) 5.35 7.188
typical example of this situation is the case of d 2(mm) 8.5 10.75
vehicle wheel bolts. They are regularly released Assumed μT and μ H 0.1 0.1
then tightened, for example in case of winter- Computed angle ρʼ (°) 6.587 6.587
summer tire changes or brake pad repairs. If Thread lead angle α (°) 3.037 2.847
only winter-summer tire changes are con-
sidered, it takes ten tightening cycles over five
years of service.

2. METHODOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL

PROCEDURE
The investigation is made on zinc-coated bolts
of size M6 and M8, with a mating nut. Figure 2
illustrates the experimental procedure. For each
size, forty brand new bolts and nuts are used.
For setting the friction parameters, two cases
were considered: the as-is case and the oiled
case. For the oiled case, the parts were cleaned
using Loctite SF 7061. Then standard 15W-40
motor oil was applied at the threads and contact
surfaces under the bolt heads, only before the
first tightening, for twenty bolts in a given size.
The remaining twenty bolts represented the as-
received, out-of-the-box friction condition.
The measurement was realized as fol-
lows. The bolt head was fixed in a wise. A spe-
cific force measuring sensor was placed be-
tween two specific washers on the bolt, then a
nut was tightened on the top (Figure 3). The
tightening torque was applied with a torque
wrench. An identical torque setting was used
for all the bolts of identical diameter size.
The data acquisition system consisted of
an HBM KMR+ bolt force sensor, an HBM
Quantum X data collector device, and a com-
puter. For each tightening, the peak bolt force
was recorded, then the bolt was loosened.
Tightening and loosening were forming one
cycle, and this has been repeated 20 times for
each bolt.
 Figure 4. Sample of the tested bolts

Figure 5. Experimental setup

3. RESULTS
3.1. Preload force
Table 2 shows the mean of the measured pre-
load value for the first tightening compared to
the theoretically calculated one, using the selec-
ted coefficient of friction for both threads and
the under the nut contact surface.
In the case of the as-is M6 bolt, the measured
bolt force is only half of that computed. For the
oiled case, measured and computed values
Figure 2. Experiment process flowchart show a good correlation. There was no such
problem in the case of M8 bolts. Generally, the
measured force values were higher than the
theoretical value.

Table 2. Calculated preload and mean of the

measured preload for the first cycle.
Measured preload
Theoretical preload
First tightening
(kN)
(kN)
Size eq(1) eq(2) eq(3) Received Oiled
M6 11.19 11.19 11.15 6.45 11.67
M8 17.36 17.36 17.31 17.78 18.61
Figure 3. Configuration of the tested bolted
joint
 3.2. Nut factor
From the measured data, a nut factor K has been
computed both for M6 and M8 sizes, upon the
rearranged equation (4):

T tightening
K= (5)
F measured · D nominal

Here the tightening torque was constant for

each bolt size. Figure 8 shows the computed
values of the nut factor. We can observe that in
the lubricated case, the nut factor is almost
identical and constant, with a mean value of
0,15, regardless of the bolt size and the tighten-
Figure 6. Effect of repeated tightening on the ing torque.
M6 zinc-coated bolt

Figure 8. Calculated nut factor during repeated

Figure 7. Effect of repeated tightening of the tightenings for M6 and M8 bolts
M8 zinc-coated bolt
We can also observe, that in the as-re-
Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the mean bolt pre- ceived case, though the curve shapes are sim-
load force value from twenty tightenings. Blue ilar, the numerical values are different. Three
lines show the as-received surface condition, zones can be recognized on the curves. During
while grey lines show the oiled surface condi- the first five tightenings, the friction, thus the
tion. For the as-received case, we can see that nut factor increases quickly. From five to fif-
there is a kind of wear-in period in the first 5-6 teen tightening, there is still an increase, but it
tightenings, where the successive preload forces is much smaller. Finally, after fifteen tighten-
decrease quickly. The magnitude decrease is ings, the nut factor values seem to stabilize, but
39,81% for the M6 size and 46,64% for the M8 the trend is not clear. The maximum value is
size. During the next tightenings, the preload 0,519 for the M6 size and 0,352 for the M8
force decrease continues, but at a much smaller size.
slope. Note that in the as-received case, the formation
In the lubricated case, we can still see a of a small amount of coating metal powder has
wear-in for the M6 case. Here, the preload force been observed on the mating surfaces during
increases slightly during the first 5 tightenings. the successive tightenings. This powder was not
The magnitude increase is 15,16%. In the case removed between the successive tightenings.
of the M8 size, the preload force oscillates with
a small amplitude around a constant value. 4. CONCLUSION
Measurements have been made to define how
the preload force changes in a bolted link dur-
ing successive tightenings and releases. It has
been presented that the measured values differ
from those given by the theory in the case of
M6 bolts. Due to uncertainties in the definition
of friction, the nut factor has been computed. It
has been shown that oil lubrication helps to
keep the preload force at a constant value both
for M6 and M8 size. It has also been shown that
in the as-received case the preload force de-
creases strongly. This decrease must be con-
sidered in industrial applications.

5. REFERENCES
[1] W. Eccles, I. Sherrington, and R. D. Arnell,
“Frictional changes during repeated tightening
of zinc plated threaded fasteners,” Tribol. Int.,
vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 700–707, 2010, DOI:
10.1016, J.TRIBO. INT.2009.10.010.
[2] J. H. Bickford and H. Saunders, An Intro-
duction to the Design and Behaviour of Bolted
Joints, Fourth Edi., vol. 105, no. 2. New York,
NY, USA: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group,
New York, 1983.
[3] R. S. Shoberg, “Engineering Fundamentals
of Threaded Fastener Design and Analysis.”
Accessed: Jun. 14, 2021. [Online]. Available:
www.pcbloadtorque.com.
[4] J. Drumheller, “TORQUE-TENSION AND
COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION TESTING,”
2018. Accessed: Jun. 12, 2021. [Online]. Avail-
able: www.PCB.com.
[5] N. Motosh, “Development of design charts
for bolts preloaded up to the plastic range,” J.
Manuf. Sci. Eng. Trans. ASME, vol. 98, no. 3,
pp. 849–851, 1976, DOI: 10.1115/1.3439041.
[6] DIN 946, “Determination of coefficient of
friction of bolt–nut assemblies under specified
conditions, Deutsche Norm,” 1991.
[7] ISO 16047, “Torque/clamp force testing;
Deutsche Norm,” Fasteners, 2005.
[8] S. Hamilton, “Bolt Lubricant and Torque: A
Comprehensive Guide,” Hex Technology, 2021.
https://www.hextechnology.com/articles/bolt-
lubricant-torque/#k-factor (accessed Sep. 29,
2021).