A comparative study on the effectiveness of system parameters in monitoring pre-load loss in bolted joints

This article presents the monitoring of bolt loosening in a single bolted lap joint between two steel beams. The bolt loosening is initially studied using system modal parameters for various boundary conditions. Natural frequency and modal damping ratio in lower modes were not found to be reliable. Transmissibility function was seen to have a more reliable trend to identify the state of the joint. An in-house setup was developed to produce loosening in the bolted joint. Testing configuration was optimized by structural analysis. Strain measurements were carried out using Fiber Bragg-grating sensors while sinusoidal load was applied on the test structure. The results have been used to discuss a viable approach to identify the health of, or recognize a loosening trend, in a bolted joint.