362 Technology

In considering thread strength, the concepts of “stress” and “strain” — the basics of metal strength evaluation—are
necessary. This article mainly utilizes stress to explain how to evaluate thread strength. In the cases where threads are
fastened via Torque Method, the load exerting on the bolt is applied in more severe conditions than using bolt heaters and
other methods that apply tension directly. I am going to clarify the reason by utilizing the so-called “Mises stress” that is
widely used for strength evaluation. Failures of threaded fasteners mostly occur around thread portions. Accordingly, I
will explain the reason, why thread rupture is likely to occur at the thread root near the nut bearing surface, by depicting
Mises stress distributions around the engaged threads. Furthermore, I will show “the expansion of plastic zone during bolt
fastening” obtained by Finite Element Analysis, which may be the criterion for determining the magnitude of axial bolt force.

Fastener Expert 101 Series:

Static Strength of Threaded Fasteners
by Toshimichi Fukuoka
The Basics of Thread Strength
Metal Strength & Thread Strength The turning point where the straight line in the graph turns
into a curved one is called “yield stress σY”. The latter results
from the occurrence of the so-called “plastic deformation”
phenomenon where the deformations resulting from large loads
won’t be recovered even if the load is removed.

The strength of threaded fasteners is commonly expressed

by a single number, such as 10.9, 8.8, 4.6, which includes the
Fig. 1
information on tensile strength σB and yield stress sY. For
example, a bolt labelled 10.9 has 1000MPa of tensile strength
and 900MPa of yield stress. Namely, the value before the
decimal point is to be multiplied by 100 to obtain tensile
strength, and then the tensile strength multiplied by the number
0.9 represents the yield stress. Accordingly, the strength
classes of 10.9 and 8.8 correspond to alloy steel and medium
carbon steel bolts with high strength, and those of 4.6 and 4.8
correspond to low carbon steel bolts.

Fig. 2
Figure 1 shows a cylindrical bar subjected to axial tensile
load F. Setting the cylindrical bar length as L, the cross
sectional area as A, and the elongation due to the load as u, we
can express stress σ and strain ε in the following equation.
=σ F=
/ A, ε u / L (1)
Referring to the above equation, stress can be expressed
as “the force exerting on unit area”, and strain as “the ratio
of the deformation to the original length”. If we represent
load F by N (Newton) and length by mm, the unit of stress
becomes N/mm 2. The magnitude of stress in the case of
1N of force exerting on 1mm 2 is 1MPa. Figure 2 shows a
“stress-strain diagram” for carbon steel that is widely used for
threaded fasteners. “Stress-strain diagram” can be derived by
applying tensile load on a test specimen having a cylindrical
bar shape until it ruptures. From this graph we can learn
various mechanical behaviors of the materials. The maximum
stress that appears in the graph is called “tensle strength σB”.
When using high strength bolts, we can apply the same level
of axial force with smaller bolts. Accordingly, it is preferable
to use thread materials having the strength as high as possible.
However, “delayed fracture” becomes a problem when using
the materials with tensile stress exceeding 1200MPa. Delayed
fracture is a phenomenon where the materials turn brittle due
to the effect of hydrogen, and after experiencing some service
conditions, followed by the completion of fastening operation,
the materials break abruptly in the brittle fracture mode. On
the other hand, with the development of processing technology
in recent years, threaded fasteners that have tensile strength
beyond 1200MPa and are free from delayed fracture start to be
manufactured lately.
Thread Fastening Strength
Since a thread is processed along a spiral, its strength is
relatively lower than a cylindrical bar with the diameter equal
to the nominal diameter. When evaluating the thread strength,
therefore, we adopt a value called stress area, and substitute
threads with complex geometry for cylindrical bars. By using
thread nominal diameter d and thread pitch P, the diameter d s
of stress area As can be expressed as follows.
 Technology 363

d s= d − 0.9382 P (2)

contact
pressure
pressure
flank

Nut
Bolt (compression)
clearance
(tension) flank
decrease of
pitch Maximum stress
increase of pitch

Fastened Plate
constraint of
axial deformation

(a) forces exerting around (b) Mises stress distribution and

engaged threads deformation pattern
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Figure 3 shows the basic profile of triangular threads.
The magnitude of d s is between the minor diameter d1 and
pitch diameter d2 of the threads.

The strength of the engaged threads is evaluated by the

stress σth obtained by dividing axial bolt force by stress
area As.

σ th = Fb / As (3)

The above equation is applicable to the cases of the

tightening operation being conducted using bolt heaters
or hydraulic tensioners, in which the axial bolt force is
applied as a direct tension. On the other hand, if we use
Torque Method for fastening, in addition to the tensile
stress due to axial bolt force, shear stress τth generated by
the torque T1 exerted on the threaded portion will occur
as well. I have explained T1 in my third article on Fastener
World Magazine.
τ th = 16T1 /(π d s ) (4)
3 the nut. Then, thread pitch of bolt increases and that of nut
In the case where fastening is performed with Torque
Method, the bolt strength is evaluated by an equivalent
stress called Mises stress.
=σ σ th 2 + 3τ th 2 (5)
Here, plastic deformation is supposed to begin once
Mises stress reaches the yield stress σY of the materials.
As a calculation example, in the case of a M16 bolt with
target axial stress of 100MPa and COF at thread surface
being 0.12, we find that Mises stress on the engaged
threads is 154MPa using the above equations.
Stress & Load Distributions on
Engaged Threads
The rupture of threaded fasteners mostly initiates from
the engaged threads. The reason can be explained by
the characteristic stress & load distributions on engaged
threads. As shown in Figure 4(a), in fastening a bolt,
Fig. 5
tension force exerts on the bolt and compression one on
decreases, and only one side of the thread surfaces is in
contact. Thread surfaces in contact and out of contact each
other are designated as pressure flank and clearance flank,
respectively. Accordingly, Mises stress on the engaged
threads present a characteristic distribution pattern as in
Figure 4(b). The maximum stress occurs around the first
bolt thread root that is nearest to the nut bearing surface,
and the location is consistent with the place where fatigue
fracture is likely to occur.
The reason that the large stress occurs at the bolt thread
root near the nut bearing surface can be explained with a
value called “ratio of flank loads”. Ratio of flank loads is
the “proportion of the axial load sustained by each thread
with respect to the total axial bolt force”, assuming that
the threads geometry is axi-symmetric. Figure 5 shows
an example of the results of analysis. The target is an M16
thread, and the number of engaged threads is 6. Although
the distribution pattern is affected by coeff icient of
friction µ on the thread surface, the first thread is found to
sustain nearly 25% of the axial bolt force. Consequently,
large stresses occur at the bolt thread root near the nut
bearing surface.
 INDUSTRY FOCUS 447
INDUSTRY 347
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The Sales/ Price statistics prove the above claim again. In the following graph: Technology 365
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