Screw fasteners and non

permanent joints, Power

Screw
Nut, Bolt, Stud, Screw

M. S. Dasgupta, BITS Pilani

Threaded Fastners
• Design of machine elements needs geometry and
joints; single integral parts not possible
• Parts are joined by fasteners and they are conveniently
classified as permanent, semi-permanent and non-
permanent joints
• Permanent :Welded joints, adhesive bonding
Semi-permanent : Riveted joints
Non-permanent fasteners: Threaded/ non threaded
joints
Non threaded joints- keys, pins 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

M121.75 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
3
H  p
2
basic ISO 68 profile with 60◦ symmetric threads
Square & Acme threads

Square thread Acme thread

Knuckle thread ?
Power screw or Screw jack mechanism
A device used in machinery to change angular motion into
linear motion, and, usually, to transmit power
Find use 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
1 3

• Locations of stress concentration in a bolt

– At the fillet
– At the run-out 2
– 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 L  125 d  48

Threaded length, LT  2d  12 125  L  200
2d  25 L  200

Table A-29; page-1053
CAP screws

Flat Socket; may be hexagonal or square

Fillister

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 A–31; 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
Grip length, l '  h  min  t2 , d 
Fastener Length, L  l  H -Roundup Table A-17
 2 2
Length of unthreaded portion in grip, ld  L  LT Fastener Length, L  h  1.5d
Length of threaded portion in grip, lt  l  ld Length of useful unthreaded portion,
ld  L  LT
 2d  6 L  125 d  48
 Length of the useful threaded portion,
Threaded length, LT   2d  12 __ __ 125  L  200
2d  25
 L  200 lt  l 'ld
Bolt Stiffness
Scenario of 1 1 1 k1 k 2 k d kt
springs in     k  kb  k  k
series k k1 k 2 k1  k 2 d t

At E Ad E Ad At E
kT   kd   kb 
lt ld Ad lt  At ld

d 2
Ad  ; area of the shank (unthreade d) portion
4
At = Thread tensile stress area from Table 8-1
Table 8–1 (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
When one of the members
 1 1 1 1 1 1
Scenario of
springs in      ....  is a soft gasket, km is
k m k1 k 2 k 3 k 4 ki simply the gasket stiffness.
series

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.

Ito’s 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 8–15
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
 D d  
2 2

P.dx A   (r  ri )    x tan       
2 2

d 
o
 2   2  

EA  D  d  Dd 
   x tan    x tan   
 2  2 

t
P dx
 .E 0 x tan   D  d  2x tan   D  d  2



P
ln
2t tan   D  d D  d 
 .Ed tan  2t tan   D  d D  d 
P  .Ed tan 
k 
 ln 2t tan   D  d D  d 
2t tan   D  d D  d 
Resultant member stiffness:
If for ith member,
 .Ei d tan  i=1, 2, …n
ki 
 2ti tan   Di  d Di  d  1 1 1 1 1 1
ln  

 i2t tan   D i  d  Di  d  
     .... 
k m k1 k 2 k3 k 4 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 km  . tan 
     
k m k1 k 2 k k k  Ed  2t tan   D  d D  d 
2 ln  
 km 
k
 2t tan   D  d  D  d  
2
Resultant member stiffness
km  . tan 

Ed  2t tan   D  d D  d 
2 ln  
 2t tan   D  d  D  d  
Ito suggested an angle α = 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◦ ≤
α ≤ 33◦ for most combinations.

If α is 30o
0.5774 .Ed
km 
ln
1.155t  D  d D  d 
1.155t  D  d D  d 
Resultant member stiffness
If the members of the joint have the same Young’s 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 
2 ln
l tan   d w  d d w  d 
l tan   dw  d dw  d 
If α 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 Young’s modulus.

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

 A exp( Bd / l ) d is the major diameter of bolt.
Ed

Use table 8-7 to read A and B

or use graph.
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 8–11 (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 connections, reused fasteners

Fi  
 0.90 Fp for permanent connections

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 8–11
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 Fm  0
kb  k m

Fm  Pm  Fi 
km P
 Fi  (1  C ) P  Fi Fm  0
kb  k m
where

is stiffness constant of the joint

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
T       
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      0.625 f c  Fi d  KFi d
 2d  l  f tan  sec  
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 8–15 :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
S p A t - Fi
n  load factor 
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

a 
Fb max  Fb min 
 a 
C Pmax  Pmin 
2 At 2 At

m 
Fb max  Fb min 
 m 
C Pmax  Pmin  Fi

2 At 2 At At
Substitute the above midrange and amplitude stresses in
Goodman, Gerber and ASME 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 8–17
Fatigue Stress- Concentration Factors Kf for Threaded Elements

Table 8–17
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  CP Fi Fi  CP
 a   max  min   
1
   
2 2  At At At  2 At

1  CP Fi Fi  CP Fi
  max  min   
1
m     
2 2  At At At  2 At At

The equation of the load hence is,  a   m   i

Fatigue Loading of Tension Joints
Goodman Gerber ASME elliptic
2
Sa Sm Sa  Sm   Sa 
2 2
 Sm 
 1     1     1
S e Sut S e  Sut  S 
 Se   p
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 subjected to cyclic pressure between 0 to 6
MPa. ISO class 8.8 bolts with a diameter of 12 mm have been
selected. Determine the fatigue factor of safety using Goodman
criteria

Cylinder head is steel (E = 207 GPa )

Cylinder is grade 30 cast iron (E = 100 GPa)
Shear Joints with Eccentric Loading

Free-body diagram of beam

Beam bolted at both ends with distributed load

enlarged view of bolt group centered at O

showing primary and secondary resultant
shear forces.
Primary and secondary shear forces on each bolt:
P
Primary shear or direct load F'
n
Same for all bolts.
Secondary shear or moment load:

FA// rA  FB// rB  FC// rC  ...  M

The force taken by each bolt depends upon its radial
distance from the centroid; that is, the bolt farthest
from the centroid takes the greatest load, while the
nearest bolt takes the smallest
F /r  F /r  F /r
A
//
A B
//
B C
//
C
Hence from the above two equations:
Next find the vectorial sum of the
Mrn
F  2
// primary and secondary shear forces to
rA  rB2  rC2  ...
n know the total load.
Problem: 8-76
The cantilever bracket is
bolted to a column with three A
M12 × 1.75 ISO 5.8 bolts. O
The bracket is made from AISI B
1020 hot-rolled steel. Find the
factors of safety for the
following failure modes: shear
of bolts, bearing of bolts and
bearing of bracket
Power Screw

square-threaded power screw

single thread
Mean diameter ‘dm’
pitch ‘p’
lead angle ‘λ’
helix angle ‘ψ’
loaded by the axial compressive force ‘F’

Helix angle: Angle that thread makes with plane perpendicular to thread axis
Lead angle : Angle between the helix and a plane of rotation
FBD of one thread, (a) raising and (b) lowering

A single thread of the screw is unrolled or developed for exactly a single turn. Then one edge
of the thread will form the hypotenuse of a right triangle whose base is the circumference of
the mean-thread-diameter circle and whose height is the lead

tan=(l / dm)

Raising: Lowering:
 F  P  N sin   fN cos   0  F
H R H   PL  N sin   fN cos   0

 FV  F  fN sin   N cos   0  F V  F  fN sin   N cos   0

Torque, (a) raising and (b) lowering

Raising   f 
F  l 
:P  F sin   f cos   PR    d m  
cos   f sin 
R
1   f .l 
 d m 
Fd m  l  fd m 
TR   
2  d m  fl 
Lowering:  
F  f   l
F  f cos   sin    d 

PL  PL  
m

cos   f sin  1   f .l 
 
 d m

Fdm  fd m  l 
TL   
2  d m  fl 
Self locking of power screws

• TL gives the torque required to overcome the

friction in order to lower the load
• In certain instances, the load may itself lower by
causing the screw to spin
• In such cases, TL is either zero or negative.
• Whenever, the load does NOT lower by itself
unless a positive TL is applied, the screw is said to
be self-locking
Self-locking of power screws

The condition for self-locking is

TL  0  fd m  l
Divide both sides by dm. Since l/ dm =tan
f  tan 
The screw is self locking whenever the coefficient of
friction is greater than the tangent of the lead angle.
Accounting for collar friction

• Normally a collar is employed to enable the power screw system to

have sufficient bearing area hold the component being raised
• Since the collar slides against the component being raised, additional
torque needs to be applied to raise the load, this is called as collar
friction torque Tc
• To estimate the Tc, whenever the collar is not too big, it is enough to
use a mean diameter, dc, at which the collar friction force is
concentrated

Ffc d c
Tc 
2
Total torque required to rise the load; TR’ = TR + Tc
Total torque required to rise the load; TL’= TL + Tc
Power screw’s raising efficiency

• It is the ratio of raising torque without friction to

the raising torque with friction
• Can be defined both with and without collar
friction

To Fl Fl
e  To 
TR 2TR 2
Coefficient of friction (f)

Use Tables 8-5 and 8-6 for values of coefficient of f and fc.

Table 8–5 Table 8–6

Coefficients of Friction ‘f’ for Threaded Pairs Thrust-Collar Friction Coefficients
Raising torque for ACME screws

• A simple approximate equation is

Fdm  l  fd m sec  
TR   
2  d m  fl sec  
 The effect of the thread angle in ACME thread is to increase the
friction force between the screw and the nut due to the wedging
action of the thread.
 For power screw application, though the ACME thread is not
suitable due to higher frictional force resulting from wedging action,
is invariably used because it is easier to manufacture than the square
threads.
Body stresses in power screws

Bearing
pressure

Critical element at which the

von-Mises stress is evaluated

T
F
Body stresses in power screws

• Bending stress, x
resultant is von-mises
• Torsional shear stress, xy stress at top of the root
• Axial compressive stress, y plane

• Transverse shear (no contribution to von-Mises stress

because it is maximum where bending stress is zero and is
zero where bending stress is maximum; hence needs to be
only independently checked for)
• Bearing pressure (no contribution to von-Mises stress
because it is distributed over the thread and is maximum at
the middle of thread and is zero at the root of the thread)
Body stresses in the screw threads: von-
Mises stress at the critical element

Power screws are operated normally at low speeds and

hence static design is enough.
16TR 16TL F  4F
 xy   xy  y  
d r3 or
d r3 A d r2

M 6F 2.28 F
x    p 1
3
 p p
I c d r nt p d r p  M  F  ; I  (d r nt )  and c 
4 12 2 4

The engaged threads cannot share the load equally. Some experiments show that the first
engaged thread carries a maximum of 0.38 of the load. In estimating thread stresses by the
equations above, substituting 0.38F for F and setting nt to 1 will give the largest level of
stresses in the thread-nut combination.
Body stresses in the screw threads:
von-Mises stress at the critical element

Resultant von-Mises stress

'
1
2
 2 2 2 2 2 2

 x   y    y   z    z   x   6 xy   yz   zx  2
1

'
1
2

 x   y    y    x   6 xy 
2 2 2 2
1
2

Body stresses: Transverse shear and bearing

need to be independently checked (no need to consider in von-Mises stress)

F 2F Must be less than the safe bearing pressure

B   given in Table 8-4. Causes too much wear
d m nt p 2 d m nt p and sometimes crushing.
Table 8–4
Screw Bearing Pressure
substituting 0.38F for F and setting nt to 1
will give the largest level of stresses in the
thread-nut combination.

2F 0.76 F
B  
d m nt p d m p

3V 3 F 3F 1.14 F It is at the centre of the root

    area. Must be less than the shear
2 A 2 d r nt p 2 d r nt p d r p yield strength of material.
Problem

A power screw has triple thread of major diameter 25 mm,

minor diameter 21.5 mm, pitch diameter 23 mm and pitch
of 3 mm. A vertical load on the screw reaches a maximum
of 6 kN. The coefficient of friction is 0.06 for threads and
0.03 for collar. The friction diameter of the collar is 30 mm.
Find the following: (a) total torque required to raise the
load, (b) total torque required to lower the load, (c)
efficiency, (d) bending stress, axial normal stress, torsional
shear stress and the resultant von-Mises at the root for one
thread (by assuming the first engaged thread carries a
maximum of 0.38 of the load). (e) bearing and transverse
shear stress