Fracture simulation of fully and partially threaded bolts under tension

AbstractThe tensile behaviour of bolts has direct effects on the performances of structural bolted joints. Conventional studies mainly focus on the stiffness and strength of bolt assemblies, whereas the deformation and fracture behaviour of fully and partially threaded bolts under tension is rarely investigated. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the fracture behaviour of fully and partially threaded bolts based on the experimental results in literature [5]. Firstly, a combined linear and power stress‐strain relation is used to describe the post‐necking stress‐strain relations of fully and partially threaded bolts. Direct tension tests on fully and partially threaded bolts are modelled using ABAQUS with the explicit solver. The fracture criterion proposed by Bao and Wierzbicki [10] is used to simulate the bolt tensile fracture and thread stripping failure. Numerical results indicate that the large deformation behaviour and the failure mode of fully and partially threaded bolts under tension could be accurately predicted combining the calibrated post‐necking stress‐strain relations and the Bao‐Wierzbicki fracture criterion with suitable parameters.