Bolt Mechanics Page 1 of 5

A Beginner's Guide to the Steel Construction Manual

Chapter 4 - Bolted Connections

© 2006, 2007, 2008 T. Bartlett Quimby

Overview
Section 4.2

Mechanics of
Load Transfer
Mechanics of Load Transfer

Finding Forces Mechanical Figure 4.2.1

on Bolts Fasteners Bolts in Shear
(i.e. bolts,
rivets, and
Hole Size and pins) are
Bolt Spacing most
frequently
used in
Tensile Rupture structural
steel Figure 4.2.2
connections Bolts in Tension
Shear Rupture where the
load direction
is
Slip Capacity perpendicular
to the bolt
Chapter axis as
Summary shown in
Figure 4.2.1.
Example In this
Problems situation the
Homework principle
Problems force in the
bolt is shear.
References Figure 4.2.3
Less Bolt Load/Deformation Curve
frequently,
Report Errors or the bolts are
Make placed such
Suggestions that their
axis is
Purchase Hard parallel to
Copy the direction
of force as
shown in
Make Donation
Figure 4.2.2.

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Bolt Mechanics Page 2 of 5

Here the
bolts the
principle
force in the
bolts is
tensile.

Let's look at
the force
transfer
mechanisms
in more
detail.

A Bolt in
Shear

As
mentioned in
the prior section, bolts may be installed as snug tight or fully
tensioned, the difference being that the snug tight installation does not
provide a significant clamping force between the connected members.
Let's begin this discussion by considering a fully tensioned bolt.

If you were to place the connection shown in Figure 4.2.1 in a tension

test, the force vs deformation curve would look something like what is
shown in Figure 4.2.3.

As the load is progressively applied to the connection, the major force

transfer between the connected plates would be by friction. The
friction capacity is the result of the normal force (N) between the
plates created by the bolt tension and the roughness of the contact
surfaces (quantified by the friction coefficient, µ). From your statics
course, you will recall that the friction capacity equals µN. Once the
applied force exceeds the friction capacity (i.e. the nominal slip
capacity), the connected members slip relative to each other until they
bear on the bolts. (Recall that the bolt diameters are smaller than the
hole diameters, which allows this slip occur.) After slip occurs the
force is then transferred by bearing between the edge of the hole and
the bolt to the bolt. The bolt carries the force by shear to the adjacent
connected plate where it is transferred to the plate by bearing between
the bolt and the edge of the hole. Failure of the connection then
results from exceeding the shear capacity of the bolt or one of the
bearing limit states discussed with tension members.

As can be seen in Figure 4.2.3, every connection will have two shear
capacities:

the capacity to carry load without slip and

the capacity to carry load without shear failure of the bolts

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Bolt Mechanics Page 3 of 5

The first is called the NOMINAL SLIP CRITICAL capacity. The

second is called the NOMINAL BEARING capacity. The SCM
specification provides equations for computing these quantities for
various bolts.

In a snug tight connection slip occurs at much smaller loads so the

nominal slip capacity is negligible. The only capacity available for a
snug tight connection is the nominal bearing capacity.

To understand the force transfer in bearing a bit better, let's take a

closer look at a free body diagram of the bolt (Figure 4.2.4).

Figure 4.2.4
Single Shear Bolt

The plates each bear on a separate side of the bolt. We will idealize
the force distribution as a uniformly distributed load along the bolt in
each case. The resulting shear diagram is shown. The maximum
shear in the bolt occurs at the contact surface of the connected
plates. The strength capacity of the bolt, then, is the shear strength of
the bolt where the shear is at its maximum. If the maximum shear
force exceeds the capacity of the bolt, then the bolt will experience a
shear failure.

The shear capacity of the bolt can be idealized as some material based
shear strength times area of the failure surface (i.e. the cross sectional
area of the bolt).

The location of maximum shear in the bolt is commonly referred to as

a SHEAR PLANE. The bolt depicted in Figure 4.2.4 is referred to as a
"single shear bolt" since it has only one critical shear plane. It is
possible to have more than one critical shear plane. Figure 4.2.5
shows a bolt that has two critical shear planes. These bolts are said to
be in "double shear" and can transfer twice as much force as a bolt in
single shear. It is possible to have even more planes of shear.

Figure 4.2.5

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Bolt Mechanics Page 4 of 5

Double Shear Bolt

A Bolt in Tension

The mechanics of a bolt in tension are less complicated than for a bolt
in shear. In this case there is no slip to consider. Also there are no
shear planes. The capacity of a bolt is the same regardless of the
number of plates being connected together. The tensile force is
parallel to the bolt axis and is considered to be concentric with the
bolt's cross sectional area, resulting in uniform stress across the
section as depicted in Figure 4.2.6.

An interesting phenomenon to consider when contemplating the

physics of this arrangement is that bolt pretension does not enter into
the problem. It turns out that, as tensile load is applied to a
connection it will reduce the contact pressure between connected
members first. The bolts see no tensile force beyond the pretension
force until the contact stress between the connected members is
overcome.

The approximation used in the SCM is that contact stress and the bolt
pretension are ignored when computing applied tensile stress, ft, and
the force is assumed to be actually applied to the bolt.

Figure 4.2.6
Bolt In Tension

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Bolt Mechanics Page 5 of 5

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