MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed.

Case Study 8D-1

CASE STUDY 8D

Design of the Head Cap Screws for an Air Compressor

Problem: Design a set of fasteners to attach the compressor head to the cylinder in Figure 9-1
based on the loadings defined in Case Study 8A.
Given: The compressor bore is 3.125-in diameter. The dynamic force acting on the
head fluctuates from 0 to 1000 lb each cycle from the 130 psi cylinder
pressure. A 0.06-in-thick, unconfined copper-asbestos gasket covers the
entire head- cylinder interface. The head thickness at the attachment points
(exclusive of cooling fins) is 0.4 in.
Bore diameter Di  3.125  in Material properties:
6
Max force on head Pmax  1000 lbf Screw Eb  30 10  psi
6
Gasket thickness tg  0.06 in Gasket Eg  13.5 10  psi
6
Head thickness th  0.40 in Members Em  10.4 10  psi
Assumptions: Infinite life. Use standard hex-head cap screws without washers. The operating
temperature is less than 350 deg F. Use 99.9% reliability.
Solution: See Figures 9-1, 9-2 and Mathcad file CASE8D.
1. Choose a trial diameter for the screws of d  0.3125 in. Use UNC threads to avoid stripping problems in the
cast-aluminum cylinder. The trial fastener is then a 5/16-18 UNC-2A cap screw with rolled threads for fatigue
resistance.
2. Choose a bolt circle and outside diameter based on the cylinder bore and the rule of thumb of at least 1.5d
to 2d of distance between any screw and an edge. We will use 2d because of the need for sealing area
against the cylinder pressure.
Dbc  Di  2  ( 2  d ) Dbc  4.375  in
Do  Dbc  2  ( 2  d ) Do  5.625  in (a)

3. To get the recommended 6-screw-diameters spacing between screws we will need about 8 screws equispaced
around the bolt circle. Calculate the spacing between screws in units of screw diameters with n b  8.

π Dbc
Δb  Δb  5.5 screw diameters (b)
n b d
This is less than the maximum of 6 screw diameters so is acceptable. We will later calculate the gasket pressure t
check for possible leakage.

4. Assume a trial screw length of 1.25 in. The head thickness of 0.40 in at the screw holes plus the 0.1-in
gasket will leave 0.75 in of thread penetration into the cylinder's tapped hole. This is > 2x the screw
diameter (10 threads), which is the minimum recommended length for a steel screw in aluminum threads.
For U.S. standard screws up to 6-in long, the thread length is 2d + 0.25 = 0.875 in of this screw's length,
which allows the desired penetration. The trial clamp length for the stiffness calculations is then
l  1.25 in, since the entire cap screw is engaged.

5. Try an SAE grade 7 screw preloaded to 70% of its proof strength. Table 15-6 shows the proof strength of
2
this screw to be S p  105  ksi. The tensile stress area from Table 15-1 is At  0.052431 in . The required
preload is then
Fi  0.70 S p At Fi  3854 lbf (c)
6. Find the joint aspect ratio and plate to screw modulus from equationa 15.18a and b:
d
j  j  0.25
l

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MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Case Study 8D-2
Em
r  r  0.347 (d)
Eb
7. Since this joint has the same material (aluminum) throughout, equation 15.19 is all that is needed to
calculate the joint constant Cng for the metal without thr gasket. The parameters needed for the equation
are found by interpolating for j  0.25 in Table 15-8. They are: p 0  0.653, p 1  1.207, p 2  1.103,
and p 3  0.383. 3 2
Cng  p 3  r  p 2  r  p 1  r  p 0 Cng  0.351 (e)

8. We can approximate the stiffness of the screw kb' with equation 15.17, then estimate material stiffness km with
no gasket by using equation 15.13c, given kb' and Cng.

Length of thread lthd  2  d  0.25 in lthd  0.875  in

Length of shank ls  l  lthd ls  0.375  in
Length of clamped thread lt  l  ls lt  0.875  in
2
Shank area Ab  0.25 π d
1 At  Ab
kb'   1 
d 6 lbf
   Eb kb'  1.112  10 
 l Ab  l t  At  l s in
(f)
1  Cng 6 lbf
km1  kb'  km1  2.055  10 
Cng in

9. Now consider the gasket. The area of the unconfined gasket subject to the clamp force can be assumed to be
that of one "screw's worth" of the total clamped area, which extends from the outside diamter of the cylinder
head to the bore:

π  2
 Do  Di 
2 2
Atotal  Atotal  17.181 in
4 
(g)

Dividing by the number of screws and subtracting the screw hole area gives the area of the clamped gasket
around one screw as:

Atotal π 2 2
Ag   d Ag  2.071 in (i)
nb 4

10. The stiffness of this piece of gasket is found from equation 15.11c.

Ag  Eg 8 lbf
km2  km2  4.659  10  (k)
tg in

The modulus of elasticity of the gasket material is found in Table 15-10.

11. The combined stiffness of the gasketed joint (from equation 14.2b) is then
1 6 lbf
km  km  2.046  10  (l)
1 1 in

km1 km2
Note that the combined stiffness in this case is dominated by the aluminum mem- bers because the
copper-asbestos gasket is stiffer.
12. The joint constant with the unconfined gasket is is
kb'
C  C  0.352
km  kb' (m)
and
( 1  C)  0.648

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MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Case Study 8D-3
13. The 1000-lb load is assumed to be divided equally among the 8 screws at 125 lb each. The portions of
the applied load felt by each screw and material (equations 15.13) are:
Pmax
P  P  125  lbf
nb

Pb  C P Pb  44.0 lbf (n)

Pm  ( 1  C)  P Pm  81.0 lbf
14. The resulting peak loads in screw and material are
Fb  Fi  Pb Fb  3898 lbf
Fm  Fi  Pm Fm  3773 lbf (o)
15. The alternating and mean components of force on the screw are
Fb  Fi
Falt  Falt  22.0 lbf
2
Fb  Fi (p)
Fmean  Fmean  3876 lbf
2

16. The nominal mean, alternating, maximum, minimum stresses in the screw are:
Falt
σanom  σanom  420  psi
At
Fmean
σmnom  σmnom  73.9 ksi
At

σmaxnom  σanom  σmnom σmaxnom  74.3 ksi

σminnom  σmnom  σanom σminnom  73.5 ksi

17. The fatigue stress-concentration factor for this diameter thread is found from equation 15.15c and the mean
stress-concentration factor Kfm is found from from equation 6.17 for S y  115  ksi
d
Kf  5.7  0.6812 Kf  5.913
in

Kfm σmax σmin K S   return K if K σmax  S

S  K σanom
return if K σmax  S
σmnom
return 0 if K σmax  σmin  2  S

Kfm  Kfm σmaxnom σminnom Kf S y Kfm  1.52

18. The local mean and alternating stresses in the screw are

Falt
σa  Kf  σa  2.48 ksi
At
Fmean (q)
σm  Kfm σm  112.5  ksi
At
19. The stresses at the initial preload and at the maximum screw force are

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MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Case Study 8D-4
Fi
σi  Kfm σi  111.88 ksi
At
Fb (r)
σb  Kfm σb  113.2  ksi
At

20. The endurance strength for this material is found using the methods of Section 6.6:
S ut  133  ksi S'e  0.5 S ut S'e  66.5 ksi (s)
Endurance limit modification factors:
Cload  0.70 Csize  1 Csurf  0.74

Ctemp  1 Creliab  0.75 (R = 0.99)

Modified endurance limit
S e  Cload  Csize Csurf  Ctemp Creliab S'e S e  25.8 ksi (t)
21. The corrected endurance strength and the ultimate tensile strength are used in equation 15.16 to find the safety
factor from the Goodman line.

S e  S ut  σi
Nf  Nf  1.6 (u)
S e  σm  σi  S ut σa
22. The static screw stress after initial local yielding and the safety factor against yielding are:

Fb Sy
σb  σb  74340  psi Ny  Ny  1.55 (v)
At σb

23. The load required to separate the joint and the safety factor against joint separation are found from equations
15.14c and 15.14d.
Fi
Nsep  Nsep  48 (w)
P ( 1  C )
24. The joint will leak unless the clamping forces are sufficient to create more pressure at the gasket than exists in
the cylinder. The minimum clamping pressure can be found from the total area of the gasketed joint and the
minimum clamping force Fm.

π  2
  Do  Di  n b d 
2 2 2
Total gasket area Aj  Aj  16.567 in
4

Average clamping Fm
pressure p avg  p avg  227.7  psi (x)
Aj

Ratio clamp to cylinder p avg

pressure Nleak  Nleak  1.8
130  psi
This ratio of clamp pressure over cylinder pressure makes the spacing of the screws acceptable.
25. The torque required to obtain the preload of Fi  3854 lbf found in step 5 is:

Ti  0.21 Fi d Ti  253  lbf  in (y)

26 This design uses eight 5/16-18 UNC-2A, grade 7, hex-head cap screws, 1.25 in long, preloaded to 70% of
proof strength and equispaced on a 4.375-in-diameter bolt circle. This design has a safety factor against
leakage of 1.7, a fatigue safety factor of 1.6, and can stand an overpressure of 47 times the operating pressure
before joint separation will occur. The low value of Ny reflects only localized yielding in the thread's stress
concentrations and so is acceptable in this case.

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