Abstract
Bolted joints are used in many industrial products such as mechanical structures, automobiles, airplanes, chemical plants, and so on. In many cases, after the design of new products is finished, various tests on the bolt and bolted joints are carried out using actual parts to prevent accidents due to bolt loosening and fracture. At the same time, in the strength tests, external force measurement, axial bolt force measurement and so on are included. However, there are no advanced tests in which axial bolt strain distribution or bolt elongation in actual parts and so on are measured. Therefore, in this research, a new method for evaluating bolt strength characteristics using an optical fiber sensor system capable of measuring actual parts is demonstrated. First, a tensile strength test using an optical fiber sensor is carried out to measure strain distribution in a bolt, and a maximum strain value position in the measured clamp load-strain curve is shown. Then, the elongation at each part of the bolt is shown. Next, yield clamp bolt force is found using this sensor system in torque/clamp force testing. In addition, the measured yield clamp bolt force is compared with the values in the conventional measurement method and in the estimation formula. Also, discussed is the effective cross section area by which the stress at the engaged threads is calculated under tensile load. Finally, another case where an optical fiber sensor system is used for bolt fastening evaluation is discussed.
