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The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry

Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2023.

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Main Author: Ellerbeck, William Vincent
Other Authors: Venter, Gerhard
Format: Thesis
Language:en_ZA
Published: Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ellerbeck, William Vincent
author2 Venter, Gerhard
author_browse Ellerbeck, William Vincent
Venter, Gerhard
author_facet Venter, Gerhard
Ellerbeck, William Vincent
author_sort Ellerbeck, William Vincent
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv Stellenbosch University
description Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2023.
format Thesis
id oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/127190
institution Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
language en_ZA
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:45:46.810Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
publisherStr Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
record_format dspace
source_str SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
spelling oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/127190 The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry Ellerbeck, William Vincent Venter, Gerhard Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. Bolted joints -- Fatigue Motor vehicles -- Materials -- Fatigue UCTD Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2023. ENGLISH SUMMARY: Within the automotive industry it is critical that fatigue failure is protected against, particularly in structural components. Fatigue approaches from design standards such as BS 7608 are commonly followed to avoid fatigue failure. The BS 7608 standard does not account for parent material strength, however, and consequently this study investigates the effect of parent material strength on the fatigue life of bolted joints. Commercial quality mild steel, S355 structural steel and Domex 550 high strength steel are used, with yield strengths of 291 MPa, 461 MPa and 598 MPa respectively. Single bolt simple lap joints are fabricated from each steel and tested until fatigue failure occurs at various load ranges. It is found that for bolted joints, fatigue performance improves with increased material strength. Higher strength steels exhibit greater variance in fatigue life, however, which must be accounted for in design. As a result the benefit of improved mean life is somewhat reduced. BS 7608 provides various joint detail classification types, however none perfectly match the lap joint used in this study. Consequently the results of these experiments are compared to BS 7608 using both net and gross cross sectional area stress. It is found that the design S-N curves best match the experimental data when the net cross section area stress is used. Using this approach, BS 7608 most accurately describes the fatigue life of joints made from S355 steel, is conservative for Domex 550 and over predicts the life of joints fabricated with commercial quality mild steel. The lap joint is also subjected to tensile tests, using digital image correlation to extract displacement data. This serves as a reference for comparing finite element models. Various finite element models of a bolted joint are developed and evaluated on complexity, computing requirements and accuracy. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Binne die motorbedryf is dit krities om, veral vir strukturele komponente, teen vermoeidheidsfaling te waak. Vermoeidheid ontwerpsbenaderinge soos die in BS 7608 word gereeld gebruik om vermoeidheidsfaling te vermy, alhoewel die BS 7608 kode nie materiaal sterkte in ag neem nie. As gevolg daarvan sal hierdie ondersoek die effek van materiaal sterkte op die vermoeidheidslewe van boutverbindings evalueer. Kommersiele kwaliteit sagtestaal, S355 strukturele staal en Domex 550 hoe sterkte staal word gebruik, met werksterktes van onderskeidelik 291 MPa, 461 MPa en 598 MPa. Enkel-bout oorslaglasse is uit elke staal vervaardig, en is tot vermoeidheidsfaling by verskillende belastingvlakke getoets. Die resultate wys dat vir boutverbindings, vermoeiheidslewe met hoer materiaal sterkte verbeter. Hoer sterkte staal vertoon egter groter variasie in vermoeiheidslewe, en dus moet ontwerpe dit in ag neem. Die voordeel van sterker staal word as gevolg hiervan verminder. BS 7608 maak gebruik van verskeie verbindings kategoriee, waarvan egter nie een perfek pas by die boutverbinding wat in hierdie studie gebruik is nie. Gevolglik word die resultate van hierdie eksperimente met BS 7608 deur die gebruik van beide die netto en bruto dwarssnit area spanning vergelyk. Daar word gevind dat die onwerspkode S-N kromme die beste by die eksperimentele data pas wanneer netto dwarssnit area spanning gebruik word. Met gebruik van hierdie benadering, voorspel BS 7608 die vermoeidheidslewe van boutverbindings uit S355 staal die beste, terwyl dit konserwatief die lewe van Domex 550 voorspel en die lewe van kommersiele kwaliteit sagtestaal oor-voorspel. Die boutverbinding is ook aan trektoetse onderwerp, met die gebruik van digitale beeldkorrelasie om verplasingsdata te onttrek. Dit dien as ’n verwysing vir die vergelyking van eindige-element modelle. Verskeie eindige-element modelle van die boutverbinding is op grond van kompleksiteit, rekenaarvereistes en akkuraatheid ontwikkel en geevalueer. Masters 2023-03-02T08:31:41Z 2023-05-18T07:08:56Z 2023-03-02T08:31:41Z 2023-05-18T07:08:56Z 2023-03 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/127190 en_ZA Stellenbosch University ix, 73 pages : illustrations, includes annexures application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
spellingShingle Bolted joints -- Fatigue
Motor vehicles -- Materials -- Fatigue
UCTD
Ellerbeck, William Vincent
The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title_full The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title_fullStr The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title_full_unstemmed The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title_short The influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
title_sort influence of steel grade on the fatigue life of bolted joints in the automotive industry
topic Bolted joints -- Fatigue
Motor vehicles -- Materials -- Fatigue
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/127190
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