Experimental and numerical analysis of structures with bolted joints subjected to impact load

Abstract

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Structures with Bolted Joints Subjected to Impact Load by Kumarswamy Karpanan Nakalswamy Dr. Brendan J. O’Toole, Examination Committee Chair Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering University of Nevada, Las Vegas The aim of this study is to analyze the transient behavior of structures with bolted joints subjected to impact or shock loads using experimental methods and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Various factors that affect the response of the bolted joint structures for shock loading were studied, such as damping, preload, intensity of impact load and type of FE modeling. The objective of this work was to develop computational modeling procedures that provide structural analysts an improved physics-based shock model for combat vehicles focusing mainly on shock transmission across bolted joints. There is only a limited amount of published literature describing the proper method for analyzing the transient shock propagation across bolted connections for high impact loading. The initial case study focused on a simple cantilever beam with bolted lap joint subjected to relatively low levels of impact force. The second case study used a flat plate bolted to a hat-section and the third structure evaluated was two hat sections bolted together. These simple configurations are representative of structures found in many military ground vehicles that can be subjected to transient impact and blast loads. These structures were subjected to low impact loading (non destructive) using impact hammers and high impact loading (destructive) using an air gun and their responses were measured using