The Fretting Fatigue Behavior of Bolted Assemblies

This study is a contribution to various scientific researches on fracture behavior of bolted joints. In our study, a three-dimensional finite element model (3D-FEM) is developed to predict the mechanical behavior of bolted joints. Fretting-fatigue tests and numerical simulations were conducted to study the effect of the clamping torque on the fatigue behavior and failure mode of bolted assemblies. The results obtained in numerical simulations are evaluated and compared with experimental results. The numerical model showed the capacity to simulate the behavior of the bolted assemblies under fatigue. Crack initiation changed from the edge of the hole to close the edge of the contact zone. A good correlation was found between the FEM simulations and the experimental results.