Torsional Overload Fracture of Twist-off Bolts During Assembly

Abstract

Abstract Supposedly simple cases of failure are most often best suited to communicate the principles of component failure analysis in the field of materials engineering to a wide readership, especially to those peers in the specialist community who are just beginning to familiarize themselves with the subject. The present case of failure relates to components that failed as early as during the assembly, and more specifically, during the final assembly stage of combustion chamber components for heavy-duty gas turbine engines. Hence, they lost their functionality (in fact, the common definition of component failure). At tightening torques of the nuts opposite of the tapered heads as low as below 25 Nm, so-called twistoff bolts which, when welded into combustion chamber sheets, take on the function of stud bolts, sheared off. By way of exception, a materialographic failure analysis could show that the primary cause of the failure was not the component’s design, but the disregard of the drawing specifications during final assembly. However, on a secondary level, design deficiencies had to be mentioned, as untempered welded joints in martensitic chromium steels invariably act as metallurgical notches. If the respective part is subjected to dynamic loads, as is the case in virtually all turbo machinery, they are thus to be avoided.