Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3017~3027

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-012-0815-7

Alternative method for identification of the dynamic properties of bolted joints

Tieneng Guo1, Ling Li2,*, Ligang Cai2 and Yongsheng Zhao2
1
College of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China
2
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xian University of Architecture Technology, Xian 710055, China

(Manuscript Received September 22, 2011; Revised March 16, 2012; Accepted May 29, 2012)

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Abstract

Bolted joints often have a significant effect on the dynamical behavior of assembled mechanical structures. An accurate model of an
assembled structure depends on correctly determining and identifying the dynamic parameters of bolted joints. This paper presents an
alternative method for identifying these dynamic parameters using structures natural frequency and damping. A novel experiment is
designed with a test piece consisting of only bolted joints, with the governing equations of the test piece established using the analytical
method. The relationships between the equivalent dynamic parameters of the bolted joints and the natural frequencies and damping ratios
of the test piece are determined for both the normal and tangential directions. The parameter identification problem for bolted joints is
thus transformed into a test of the natural frequency and the damping ratio of the test piece. In order to check the accuracy of the pro-
posed identification method, the test piece and bolted joints are modeled using the finite element method (FEM) and the dynamic proper-
ties of the test piece are analyzed. The maximum error between the natural frequencies of the FEM result and the experimental values in
the normal and tangential models are 4.73% and 0.34%, respectively. The result indicates that the proposed method is valid for the dy-
namic parameter identification of bolted joints.
Keywords: Bolted joints; Parameter identification; Dynamic property
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of joints, numerous researchers have presented methods from

1. Introduction
different perspectives [5-20]. The main aim of joint identifica-
Virtually all structural assemblies are joined in some fash- tion is to obtain the dynamic characteristics of joints, either
ion, by bolting, welding, riveting, or some other method. It is analytically or numerically, by minimizing the discrepancy
well known that the flexibility of a structure due to its joints between the measured frequency response function (FRF) and
heavily affects the dynamic behavior of the assembly, and that the predicted FRF of an assembled structure [6].
most vibrational energy loss occurs in the joints between two There are two commonly used approaches for identifying
contact structures. Gaul [1] showed that joint damping is far joint dynamic properties. One is the pure experimental ap-
larger than material damping. Beards [2] mentioned that up to proach, which involves using only experimental data to iden-
90% of total system damping is provided by the joints. There- tify the joint parameters [7, 8]. Tsai and Chou [7] used the
fore, accurate prediction of structural assembly dynamics at measured FRFs of both the substructures and the assembled
the design stage depends, not only on the structure model, but structure to extract the joint parameters. Wang [9] constructed
also on the mechanical characteristics of the structures joints. a simple free-free system consisting of two mass blocks joined
Over the last few decades, numerical techniques used for by an elastic element and identified the physical characteris-
structure dynamics have made significant progress and the tics of the joints including rotational degrees of freedom
mechanical characteristics of structures are well predicted by (RDOF). Hu [10] proposed a dynamic stiffness matrix to iden-
FEM. However, identifying the mechanical properties of tify the joint, using the synthetic substructure method, by
joints is still a longstanding problem. A comprehensive review measuring the matrix of FRFs of the substructure (axle) and
of joint identification can be found in the literature (Ungar [3]; whole structure (assembly of the axle, bearing, and bearing
Gaul [1]; Ibrahim [4]). housing) in different positions. Experiment-based methods
Due to the difficulty of extracting the dynamic characteristic can avoid error from structure modeling. However, the results
*
obtained by pure experimental method are deteriorated by
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 1067396753, Fax.: +86 1067396753
E-mail address: lee_liling@163.com
unavoidable noise in the measured FRFs. Furthermore, it is

Recommended by Editor Yeon June Kang impractical to measure the FRFs of joints under many experi-
KSME & Springer 2012 mental conditions.
3018 T. Guo et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (10) (2012) 3017~3027
The second method is the model-based approach, which us-
es both experimental data and the FEM model to identify joint
parameters [11]. Ren [12, 13] outlined an alternative approach
for establishing a theoretical joint model by extracting the
model parameters from experimental data using joint identifi-
cation techniques. The dynamic stiffness matrix of the joint
was constructed using mass, stiffness, viscous, and/or struc-
tural damping matrices. With this method, the measurement
errors can be reduced by introducing a proper criterion. Liu
[14] developed an improved identification method for linear
joint models, and used the substructure synthesis method for
identifying the dynamic properties of elastic media between
coupled substructures. Lee [15] proposed a new modeling
method that used both a stiffness influence method and a con-
densation method to obtain natural frequencies and mode
shapes for a beam containing a jointed connection. Addition-
ally, in Ref. [16] a substructure method and optimization tech-
nique were adopted to identify a joints structural parameters
in a complex system, and the accuracy of the method under
influence of random noise and the magnitude of the connec-
tion stiffness values was investigated. Yang [17] used the sub-
structure synthesis method and FRFs for bolted joint parame-
ter identification. The joint model was considered as a coupled
stiffness matrix instead of just a set of translational and rota-
tional springs. However, this method is time-consuming due
to the number of inverse operations. eli [18] established a
joint theoretical model from the substructure information and
assembly FRF data. The identification process considered not
only translational DOFs, but also RDOFs. Mao [19] proposed
a stiffness influential factor method to recognize the dynamic
model parameters of joints based on the dynamic test data of
the assembled structure, including the bolted joints. zsahin
[20] introduced a receptance coupling method to identify dy-
namical joint parameters in spindle-holder-tool assemblies.
However, a finite element modeling error may be introduced
with this theoretical model, especially in the damping property
of the structure.
Bolted joints are also regarded as a potential source of non-
linear behavior due to clearance, prying load, and non-linear
contact stiffness of the joint [4]. For example, Ma [21] treated
the joint as a local force operator in the structures equations
of motion, and used a Greens function to solve for the re-
sponse by considering the joint as a pseudo-force. They con-
sidered the local dynamic effect of the joint to be the only
difference between a joint structure and non-joint structure.
Jalali [22] studied the parameters of an assumed nonlinear
joint model identified by force-state mapping methods, where
the signal was the time-domain acceleration records in re-
sponse to single-frequency excitation close to the first natural
frequency. Ahmadian [23] presented a non-linear generic ele-
ment formulation developed for modelling bolted lap joints.
The generic parameters of the joint are identified by minimis-
ing the difference between the model response obtained from
the incremental harmonic balance method and the observed
behaviour of the structure. In practice, a large number of ex-
Fig. 1. The assembled structure.
Fig. 2. Model of the assembled structure.
periments have shown that the structural dynamic properties
of machine tools are linear, and that the nonlinear characteris-
tics of bolted joints are not obvious. Thus, this paper identifies
bolted joints using a linearization method.
From the literature, the major issues surrounding implemen-
tation of the substructure synthesis method with measured
FRFs are incompleteness of the FRFs, inaccessibility meas-
urement, measurement noise, and adequacy of the joint model
and parameter sensitivity [18]. This paper presents an alterna-
tive method to identify the joint dynamic parameters by using
the natural frequency and damping ratio of structure. The nat-
ural frequency and damping are obtained by the signal around
the natural frequency and its signal-to-noise ratio is higher
than other frequency region. A simple bolted joint specimen is
designed and an analytical equation for the specimen is devel-
oped. The stiffness and damping of the bolted joint is identi-
fied by the natural frequency and damping ratio of the speci-
men. The identification result is verified based on the FEM
model of the specimen.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the govern-
ing equation for the bolted joint specimen is deduced using
rod and Timoshenko beam theory. We determine the relation-
ship between the stiffness and damping of the bolted joints,
and the natural frequencies and damping ratio in the longitude
and transverse directions of the specimen. In Section 3, we
design two bolted joints experiment, identifying the model
parameters; i.e. stiffness and damping parameters of the bolted
joints. The FEM method is adopted to assess the accuracy of
the identification result. The general trends in the stiffness and
damping of the bolted joints with a preload on the bolt are
predicted. Finally, we provide some conclusions in Section 4.
2. Dynamic model of bolted joints
In order to extract the characteristic parameters, a simple as-
sembled structure with two bolted joints, as shown in Fig. 1, is
developed in this study. The mechanical model of the joint is
simplified in Fig. 2. The first longitudinal natural frequency
and damping ratio of the assembled structure, determined by
measurement, are used to identify normal stiffness and damp-