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Experimental analysis of loosening phenomenon of bolted connections under

vibration at the resonance frequency

Conference Paper · March 2018

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Hamdi Hentati Abdelileh Mabrouk

University of Sfax École Nationale Supérieure de l'Electronique et de ses Applications
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University of Sfax
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Experimental analysis of loosening phenomenon of bolted connections
under vibration at the resonance frequency

HAMDI HENTATI 1a, ABDELILEH MABROUK 2a, OLFA KSENTINI 3a, TAHER
FAKHFAKH 4a, MOHAMED HADDAR 5a
a
LA2MP Laboratory, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract – Loosening of the bolt joint assembly is a crucial phenomenon. It may cause
catastrophic damage in many industrial mechanisms especially in aeronautical fields. Some authors
focused their studies on the loosening resulting from a load at a frequency far from the natural one.
The aim of this paper is to present an innovate experience in which an assembly will be the subject
of a transversal and a torsion loading at the second natural frequency. The dynamic load resulting
from a shaker will cause the loosening of assemblies. The experience is limited by the capacities of
the shaker, which can generate a little load.

Key words: resonance frequency / dynamic behavior/ loosening phenomenon / bolted joint
assembly.

Hammamet, 19-21 March 2018, Tunisia

The Second International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration, ICAV’2018

1 Introduction load. The assembly will be the subject of vibration

resulting from a shaker at the resonance frequency.
The loosening of a bolted joint may result from
various types of dynamic loads, such as shocks or 2 Experimentation
vibrations. Various studies have shown that this
phenomenon occurs more frequently when the bolt The setup of the parts of the experience is
is subject to a transverse load, which causes sliding illustrated by figure 1.
between surfaces.
Junker [1] is the pioneer in this domain; he has
studied the loosening phenomenon under transverse
load. His machine consists of a motor, which drives
an eccentric mechanism causing a controlled
displacement of an upper plate, which has
connected to a fixed base by the bolt. A load sensor
was been used to measure the load screw
continuously during the test. The displacement of Figure 1. Materials of the experience
the upper plate and the screw rotation was been The assembly illustrated by figure 2 consists of two
measured. plates assembled by bolt and subjected to
Delcher [2] conducted different tests on simple vibrations. The upper plate is fixed whereas the
overlapped assemblies, which was been loaded by a lower one is subject to vibration. Vibration is
dynamic mechanism and controlling force and generated by a shaker at a frequency near to the
speed. The static slip load was been measured by a first or the second eigenfrequency. The excitation at
tensile test and then the load and displacement of these eigenfrequencies accelerates the loosening
the moving part are recorded continuously during phenomenon. The movement of the shaker is
the reciprocating motion. transmitted to the lower plate by the mean of a
The displacement is not sinusoidal. It is triangular bracket. A bolt assembles the bracket to the lower
at constant speed. The fastest loosening and the plate. Tightening of the bracket to the lower plate
most important slip are generated. An increase in inhibit local slipping, there is slipping only
the slip rate decreases the loosening speed as well at the interface of the two plates. During the
as the friction. During the sliding of the assembly, experience, we change the frequency by acting
there is a significant degradation of the surface state directly on the amplifier while the oscilloscope
at the interface of the two tightened parts, by saves all answers.
matting and tearing of material. These phenomena Upper plate Accelerometer Oscilloscope
increase strongly when the speed of stress
increases. The unscrewing occurs only when the
transverse force exceeds the slip threshold.
Delcher [3] also carried out tests on cantilever bolt
joint assembly resulting from the movement
imposed by a dynamic hydraulic mechanism. By a
frequency sweep around the first natural one, the
bending of the tested part was been exploited to
Lower plate Shaker Bracket Amplifier
generate a shear load near to the friction one
between the two parts. The influence of the friction, Figure 2. Experience setup
the geometry of the nut and the thread clearance The frequency of excitation is selected after having
was been studied. carried out a modal calculation to determine the
Ksentini [4,5,6] has studied the loosening eigenfrequencies.
phenomenon for an assembly subjected to For this preliminary calculation, the upper plate is
transversal load, she has conducted numerical and fixed and the lower one is free. In order to simplify
experimental tests for the study of this the model calculation the bracket will be tied to the
phenomenon. Her experience consists of an inertial lower plate and the sinusoidal excitation will be
mass assembled to a bracket fixed on a shaker. At applied at the extremity of the bracket.
an important acceleration and by its gravity, the The modal calculation led to the first and the
mass slips at the surface of the bracket. Sliding of second mode, whose deformation shape is
the mass leads to the loosening phenomenon. The represented by the next figure.
nut rotation and the screw load behaviour prove the
existence of the loosening phenomenon.
This paper is a continuation of these works; it
consists of the study of the loosening phenomenon
when the bolt is subject to transversal and torsional

Hammamet, 19-21 March 2018, Tunisia 1


Figure 3. First and the second mode shape
The first mode, which is a flexion mode, is
obtained at a frequency of about 130 Hz, whereas
the second mode, which is a torsional mode, is
obtained at a frequency of about 163 Hz.
3 Experiment results
We have tested four different configurations: two
configurations for transversal excitation and two
others for the torsional ones. For each type of
excitation, the position of the shaker is changed,
one case is near to the movable plate and another is
far from. The assembly in the case of the torsional
and transversal excitation is presented by figure 3
when the excitation is far from the moveable plate.
The test begins from 10Hz; we start to increase
regularly the frequency by stage of 1Hz every two
seconds. We limit the acceleration of the
shaker to 10g for safety reasons. We have obtained
the loosening for the two cases but we have noted
that the position of the excitation has an influence
on the loosening phenomenon. For the control and
the manipulation of the shaker, an accelerometer is
used and it was fixed at the movable plate. In order
to facilitate the visualization of the nut rotation, we
have carried out marks on the moveable plate and
the nut.
(A)
(B)
Figure 4. Experimental configurations: (A)
torsional excitation, (B) transversal excitation
From figure 5 we can see the rotation of the nut in
the loosening direction. In fact, before the
loosening phenomenon we can see that there is a
coincidence between the nut corners and marks
Hammamet, 19-21 March 2018, Tunisia
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placed on the movable plate. After the loosening
phenomenon, the coincidence is loosen. The
position of the nut in figure 4 proves the loosening
phenomenon.
(1) (2)
Figure 5. Nut rotation: (1) before loosening, (2)
after loosening
4 Conclusion
This paper presented an experience for the study of
the loosening phenomenon resulting from vibration
at the resonance frequency. The rotation of the nut
in the loosening direction is shown in this paper. In
this study we are limited by the capacities of the
shaker. The future work will be the elaboration of a
numerical model with variation of such parameters,
which have an influence on the loosening
phenomenon.
5 References
[1] Junker G. H., "New Criteria for Self-Loosening
of Fasteners Under Vibration", SAE Transactions,
Vol.78, 1969, pp. 314–335.
[2] Delcher C, "Synthèse des études sur
l'indesserrabilité", Centre Technique des Industries
Mécanique (Cetim), pp. 1-20.
[3] Delcher C, "Etude des phénomènes de dévissage
spontané dans les assemblages vissés", Colloque
Supméca 2015-les Assemblages Mécaniques, pp1-
12.
[4] Ksentini O, Combes B, Abbes M.S, Daidié A,
Haddar M, Simplified model to study the dynamic
behaviour of a bolted joint and its self
loosening, Structural Engineering and Mechanics,
2015, 55(3), 639-654, DOI:
10.12989/sem.2015.55.3.639.
[5] Ksentini O, Combes B, Abbes M.S, Daidié A,
Haddar M, Numerical study of self-loosening of a
bolted assembly under transversal load, Mechanics
and Industry, 2016, 17(507), DOI:
10.1051/meca/2015113.
[6] Ksentini O, Combes B, Abbes M.S, Daidié A,
Haddar M, Experimental study of the bolted joint
self loosening, Les deuxièmes Journées des
Systèmes Mécatroniques, JSM’2014, Du 17 au 19
Mars 2014, Mahdia – Tunisie, Book Title:
Mechatronic Systems: Theory and Applications,
cahpter 4, page 1-9, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-
07170-1_4. (Springer International Publishing
Switzerland 2014).
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