Computation of load factors in bolted connections

An accurate computation of the joint load factors is critical for the safe design of bolted connections. This study provides a four-step procedure for the direct computation of the joint load factors for a variety of bolt diameters, joint thicknesses, individual plate thicknesses, and plate material combinations. The finite element method was used to calculate the bolt and plate deformations necessary to directly compute the load factor for 4424 unique combinations of the four joint design parameters. The procedure developed in this study provides accurate estimates of the joint load factor over the entire range of the four joint design parameters. All 4424 joint designs originally analysed with the finite element method were recomputed using the proposed procedure. The root mean square error was found to be 0.58 per cent with a correlation coefficient between the load factors computed by using the original finite element analyses and the proposed procedure to be 0.9998.