The smart industrial revolution in any organization brings faster product delivery to the market, which can meet customer expectations and full life requirements without failure. Failure per machine (FPM) is a very critical metric for any organization considering warranty cost and customer perception. One such area which needs a detailed evaluation is bolted joints. Bolts play a pivotal role when integrating a subassembly with the main structure. Often, it is challenging to address bolt failure issues due to vibration induced in structures.
Current bolt virtual evaluation methods help to evaluate bolts in simple loading conditions such as axial and bending loads. But it is quite complicated to evaluate the bolts which are prone to vibration loading. Traditional methods of using gravity loads miss out on dynamic characteristics, hence it must be simulated using modal dynamic analysis. With the current vADV (virtual accelerated design verification) method it is not possible to capture correct physics as modal analysis converts all frictional contacts to bonded contact resulting in change of load path.
Different methodologies to evaluate bolts under vibration fatigue.
Both the methods have shown good correlation with field data and have been utilized in ongoing product development programs to address ADV (Accelerated Design Verification) failures. Pros and cons of these methods are understood and documented in this study.