| THEORY & FORMULAE |
Consider a preloaded bolt joint clamping two members as shown. The stiffness of the members and of the bolt are known, for example using calculators Bolt & Nut Joint: Stiffnesses of components or Cap Screw Joint: Stiffnesses of components . The system is subjected to an external tensile force P, which is carried partly by the bolt and partly by the mating members. The resulting stresses and various factors-of-safety are be estimated via the equations below:
    
where
     C = joint constant
     kb = stiffness of bolt
     km = stiffness of members
     Sproof = bolt strength
     Fproof = bolt's proof force
     Fpreload = bolt's preload force
     f = bolt's preload factor = 0.9 (permanent joint), = 0.75 (disassemblable joint)
     P = external force applied to bolt and members assembly
     nload = factor-of-safety of bolt relative to the applied load
     nseparation = factor-of-safety against separation, i.e. net force on members is zero
     σa = alternating stress on bolt
     σm = mean stress on bolt
     nfatigue = factor-of-safety of bolt relative to fatigue strength
     nyield = factor-of-safety of bolt relative to yield strength
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