Abstract
Bolted joints are widely used in mechanical and architectural structures. However, many serious accidents occur because of loosening in bolted joints. The diagnosis of the bolt loosening is able to be achieved by evaluating the variation of tightening axial tension. Conventionally, the inspection method of the loosening bolted joint is generally the measurement of the axial tension of a bolted joint by using ultrasonic waves. These methods require the use of special measurement equipment and the human operation. In this study, a smart washer was proposed to detect the loosening without human involvement. The basic principle of how to detect bolt loosening is to the dynamics characteristics of a smart washer system which varies depending on bolt tightening axial tension. A novel bolt loosening detection method by adaptive observer with variable gain is proposed in this paper. The numerical simulations are performed to verify the possibility of the adaptive observer-based loosening detection.
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