Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 12151225

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Mechanism and Machine Theory

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / m e c h m t

An investigation on the anti-loosening characteristics of threaded fasteners

under vibratory conditions
Anirban Bhattacharya a,, Avijit Sen b, Santanu Das b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, Punjab, India

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalyani Government Engineering College, Kalyani 741235, West Bengal, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 8 October 2007
Received in revised form 13 August 2008
Accepted 13 August 2008
Available online 1 October 2008
Keywords:
Threaded fasteners
Vibrating condition
Anti-loosening
Tightening torque

a b s t r a c t
A signicant advantage of the screw fastener is its capability of being mantled and dismantled
using simple tools. However, threaded fasteners have inherent and inevitable limitations that
they loosen eventually under vibrating environment leading to higher frequency of routine
maintenance of the components, the absence of which may result in fatal accidents. In the
present work, an attempt has been made to test the anti-loosening ability of various locking
screw fasteners, such as nylock nut, aerotight nut, chemical lock, cleveloc nut, at washer,
nylon washer, serrated washer and spring washer with bolts of different materials, sizes and
types with different initial clamping forces under the accelerated vibrating conditions obtained
in an indigenously made testing rig. The loss of clamping force gives an indication of the extent
of loosening. Their anti-loosening characteristics are compared with respect to initial clamping
forces. On the basis of the test results, chemical locking has been found to show best antiloosening characteristics followed by nylock and aerotight nut. Loosening is found to be
considerably less, when the initial clamping force is more than 1.1 ton for metric threaded
bolts, and the same for BSW bolts is found at a force above 0.8 ton, when the bolts are fastened
with conventional nuts.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The history [1] of screw fasteners is believed to have begun in TigrisEuphrates (Shatt-al-Arab) region almost 3000 years ago.
At the initial stages, the cross section of screw threads was plate-like and they were used for irrigation purposes. According to an
Encyclopedia, in ancient Greece people started applying screw to press olives. If this is true, then they are the rst people to realize
great potential of screw. The next application that followed was the usage as feeders [1]. Leonardo da Vinci [2] is credited with the
mooting and implementation of this important usage of screw threads. He was the man who started the era of development of this
fastener by making sketches of them showing his ideas concerning application of screws.
Within half a century after Leonardo died, drastic and revolutionary changes were made. The most drastic change came in its
shapefrom square to triangle. This invention was made by gunsmiths somewhere in Europe. Although this assumption has not
been conrmed yet, it is certain that a bolt at the end of a gun barrel in the early 1940s had a triangular shape. The potential of
screw fasteners was slowly realized by people who nally accepted it by 1779 with the rst implementation made exclusively
during the construction of Iron Bridge in Telford, England. After this, there evolved wide ranges of screw fasteners and they
began to be used in various applications.
The numerous advantages realized by the use of threaded fasteners are ability to generate high clamping forces and retention of
the same for very long duration, easy assembly and disassembly without damage of the components, wide range of applications of

Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, Punjab, India. Tel.: +91 175 2393365, 2393086 (ofce).
E-mail address: anb90_bank@yahoo.co.in (A. Bhattacharya).
0094-114X/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2008.08.004

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threaded coupling, standardization leading to cheap production and easy availability for replacement etc. Such unique advantage
makes possible usage of screw threads in numerous engineering applications like holding the components togetherparts of large
machines that must be made in small units for ease in manufacturing, assembling or shipping, for production and transmission of
powers e.g. in lead screws of lathes; screw or press, for adjusting and obtaining accurate movements as in micrometers, pumping,
pulling, sealing, etc.
However, prolonged and sustained vibration in some typical mode can result in loosening of screw fasteners very easily in
several casesheralding the major drawback of screw fasteners.

2. Review of literature
In the year 1945, Goodier and Sweeny [3] tested only a dynamically loaded bolted joint. In spite of their failure to obtain a
complete self-loosening of threaded fasteners, they offered an explanation of partial loosening of threaded fasteners. They pointed
out that for axially loaded joint, pulsating tension of a clamped bolted connection creates radial sliding motions between the
thread anks of the bolt and nut or the interface of the clamped bearing surfaces. The reasons for this are the contraction of the bolt
according to Poisson's ratio and dilation of the nut walls caused by axial tension.
In the year 1964, Hongo [4] conducted some experiments on axial loading of nut and bolt assemblies. He varied the axial tensile
force of a bolt and nut fastening having JIS M20 coarse screw threads 100 times in the range of 250 to 3000 kg in a reciprocal
fashion. He examined whether there was any relative rotation between the bolt and nut by observing the oscillation of a beam of
light projected on to a mirror pasted on the bolt. The results showed that the bolt did not continue to rotate in a direction that
would loosen the nut. Goodier and Sweeny [3] in a similar way had reported detecting a relative rotation of 6.28 10 3 radian by
varying the axial tensile force of the bolt 100 times. Hongo [4] could not accept this conclusion of Goodier and Sweeny [3] that
the bolt and nut undergo relative rotation in the direction that would loosen the fastening as long as there is variation in the axial
tensile force of the bolt [3].
In the year 1966, Paland [5] tested various types of threaded fasteners for axial loading and gave the rule of loosening
arithmetically and by measuring the tangential strain on the surface of the nut. He came to the conclusion that a loaded nut widens
elastically in a radial direction at the area near the bearing surfaces and contracts in upper part.
This very small amount of radial displacement by expansion of the nut would explain why Paland, in spite of heavy impact
loading in an axial direction of the bolt, still needed a small external off-torque to turn the nut so as to loosen completely.
In the year 1969, Junker [6] described the mechanism of loosening on the basis of friction between the ank surfaces. According
to him, the theory of mechanism of self-loosening of nut and bolt is based on the well-known law of physics that denes the effect
of friction on two interacting solid bodies. As soon as the friction force between two solid bodies is overcome by an external force
working in one direction, an additional movement in any other direction can be caused by the action of forces that can be
essentially smaller than the friction force.
He tested cap screws, spring washers and free spinning locking screws with respect to its anti-loosening characteristics. Since
transversely loaded joints tend more to self-loosening, the test procedure suggested imitates these actual conditions. The rst
attempt was made with a device consisting of two parts clamped together by the specimen, with load cell and displacement pickup
to record transverse load, preload and displacement. He also reported that maximum values of vibration energy (transverse force x
displacement) were signicantly different for various locking elements.
Sase et al. [7,8] tested the effectiveness of screw threads, spring washers, nylon inserted nuts, double nuts and eccentric nuts of
few sizes to resist loosening. Test results showed that the popularly known anti-loosening fasteners did not possess much
resistance to loosening.
In the year 1998, Sase et al. [8] introduced and evaluated the Step Lock Bolt (SLB) with regard to its anti-loosening performance
using a displacement based loosening device. They found the presence of desirable anti-loosening characteristics of SLB. The
displacement and turning angle of the bolts and the nuts were examined in loosening tests.
Following the experimental procedure and conclusions drawn by Sase et al. [7], a testing rig was designed and fabricated by a
group lead by Das and co-workers [9,10], where a constant vibrating force of constant frequency and amplitude is applied at the
right angle of the bolt axis. In this set-up, several tests were carried out with BSW and metric bolts of different materials, sizes
with various types of nut and washer arrangements to conclude that nyloc nuts give substantial resistance to loosening compared
to other fasteners.

2.1. Denition of screw loosening

Materials fastened using screws are held together by the tensile force generated by the elongation of the bolt shaft (the bolt axis
force) and by the force of compression generated in the objects being tightened (the tightening force) [1]. These two forces remain
in balance as long as no external forces are applied to the objects being fastened by the screws. The general term for the forces
involved in pulling or fastening the two materials together is the pretension force.
In some situations, such as in the course of using machinery, the pretension force applied at the time that the materials forming
the machinery were originally fastened may decrease for a variety of reasons. This spontaneous decrease in the pretension force is
what is described in general terms as screw loosening.

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2.2. Loosening without relative rotation between bolt and nut

In this case, some residual plastic deformation, such as stretching of bolt, shrinking of an intermediate piece, or smoothening of
the contact surface like the sides of the thread ridges and the bearing surface of the nut, invariably exists. Those problems can be
solved by selection of proper material for bolt and nut [1,3,4].
2.3. Loosening caused by relative motion of the bolt and nut
There are two types of relative motion which occur in threaded fasteners. One is the relative motion between the nut and the
bolt. And the other is the relative motion between the nut/bolt and clamping surfaces.
There are three common causes of the relative motion occurring in the threads [1,6]:
1. Bending of parts, which result in forces being induced at the friction surface. If slip occurs, the head and threads will slip which
can lead to loosening.
2. Differential thermal effects caused as a result of either differences in temperature or differences in clamped materials.
3. Applied forces on the joint can lead to shifting of the joint surfaces leading to bolt loosening.
2.4. Vibration loosening of nut and bolt
When nut is subjected to vibrating force, a cycle of alternative tensile and compressive forces starts acting on mating surface
between the nut and bolt. But since the mating surface has two angles namely, the lead angle and ank angle, the force gets split
into three mutually perpendicular components. One of these components acts along the axis of the bolt, the other act in a radial
direction and the remaining one act tangentially to mating surface.
So the force that acts along the axis tries to stretch the bolt and deforms it. The radial force acts to deform the thread prole and
tangential force generates a moment in the reverse direction that favours loosening.
If relative motion occurs between the threaded surfaces and/or other contact surfaces of the clamped and clamping parts
because of an external force, the direction of which is either tangential or radial, the bolted connection will become free of friction
in the circumferential direction. This means that the preload acting on the thread creates a force in a circumferential direction and
results in the rotational loosening of the bolt or nut.
For axially loaded joint, pulsating tension of a clamped bolted connection creates radial sliding motions between the thread
anks of the bolt and nut or the interface of the clamped bearing surfaces. The reasons for this are the contraction of the bolt
according to Poisson ratio and dilation of the nut walls caused by axial tension. Thus axially loaded nut widens elastically in radial
direction at the area near the bearing surfaces and contracts in upper part. These create a relative motion between the nut and bolt
which favours loosening of the fastener.
For dynamically loaded joints, the relative motion between thread anks and other contact surfaces of the bearing areas can
occur in magnitudes up to the maximum allowance of the thread. These large effects appear when transverse loading, which has to
be transmitted by grip friction, exceed the friction force between the clamped parts. The resultant transverse slippage between the
clamped parts forces the bolt to assume a pendulum movement, which leads to relative motion in the thread hole and thus in the
thread anks.
If the amplitude of such transverse slippage of the bolt is large enough, slippage of nut or bolt head bearing surface will nally
occur and make the join totally free of friction in a circumferential direction. It can be easily realized too that, contrary to the
conditions to the axial loading, relative motion between the anks will occur in all parts of the nut threads when the joint slips
under transverse force. Thus, the internal off-torque force becomes sufcient to turn the bolt or nut completely loose as soon as the
friction is eliminated from the bearing area as well as from the thread area. Such transverse slippages are more common in practice
than usually accepted. Experience shows that these joints most frequently fail by self-loosening [1,4,68].
2.5. Prevention of loosening by means of design
From the above discussion it can be declared that loosening caused by relative rotation can be minimized if [1],
The lead angle is reduced:
Relative slip depends on lead angle. With the increase of lead angle relative slip also increases and vice versa. If helix angle
becomes greater than friction angle then thread becomes overhaul. If lead angle reduces to zero then thread will not be able to
transfer torque.
The ank angle is made as small as possiblealmost zero:
A very small ank angle results in increased fastening torque as well as due to vibration when it tries to rotate in the loosening
direction it needs more torque. So a very small ank angle increases the anti-loosening property of thread.
Reducing relative slip between bearing surface nut and the fastened material by introducing a taper between these two
surfaces:
In this case contact area as well as friction force increases. But assembly becomes difcult. Intermediate part must have proper
counter prole.

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2.6. Locking fasteners

A variety of locking fasteners are used nowadays offered by major companies. For example, conventional spring lock washers
are no longer specied, because it has been shown that they actually aid self-loosening rather than prevent it. There are a
multitude of thread locking devices available. Through the efforts of the American National Standards Subcommittee B18:20 on
locking fasteners, three basic locking fastener categories have been established. They are [1] free spinning, friction locking, and
chemical locking.
a. Free Spinning Type: The free spinning type is plain bolts with a circumferential row of teeth under the washer head. These are
ramped, allowing the bolt to rotate in the clamping direction, but lock into the bearing surface when rotated in the loosening
direction. The Whizlock is in this category.
b. Friction Locking: Friction locking categories can be sub-divided into two groupings, metallic and non-metallic. The metallic
friction locking fastener usually has a distorted thread which provides a prevailing torque; an example of this category is the
Philidas nut. Non-metallic friction locking devices have plastic inserts which provide a thread locking effect; an example being
the Nyloc nut.
c. Chemical Locking: The chemical locking category is adhesives which ll the gaps between the male and female threads and
bond them together; Loctite is an example. Such adhesives are now available in micro-encapsulated form and can be preapplied to the thread.
2.7. Some anti-loosening fasteners
Many new threaded fasteners have been introduced to claim to have considerable anti-loosening ability. One of such attempts
has provided a wedge ramp which can draw the crest of the bolt tightly. Step lock bolt has been reported [1,7,8] to show antiloosening property by putting step parts having no lead angle at certain positions on to the bolt. Combinations of two nuts with
small eccentricity in the sliding part of the convex top of the lower nut have also been tried for self-locking of the fasteners under
vibratory conditions. In Aero-tight nut, a torque prevailing nut of all metal construction, the nut is slotted in two places which,
after the nut has been tapped, are bent slightly inwards and downwards. When the nut is screwed onto the bolt thread the two
slotted parts are forced back to their original position [1]. In Cleveloc nut, the collar of the nut is elliptical in cross section and it is
this that provides the exible locking element. The nut is pre-lubricated to reduce the tightening torque [1].
3. Experimental investigation
3.1. The set up
From previous works it is seen that the loosening mechanism becomes most pronounced when the direction of vibration is
perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bolt.
The testing rig has thus been designed to obtain the following:
1. A repeated oscillatory motion to achieve vibration of xed frequency and amplitude.
2. Measurement of clamping force at any instant.
3. Any desired number of oscillations.
To obtain the above requirements the following machines and/or mechanisms have been made use if:
1. A motor provides the basic rotary motion and the motion is transferred to another shaft by a beltpulley arrangement.
2. A cam mounted on the rotating shaft incorporates rotating motion to the oscillatory motion onto a rocking plate at a xed
frequency.
3. A load cell measures the clamping force between the two plates clamped by the bolt to be tested, at any instant.
4. A proximity switch measures the number of oscillation by measuring the rotation of the shaft.
The rocking plate transmits this vibration to another plate which is clamped to a xed structure with the help of the nut and
bolt assembly under test. By this way, the nut and bolt assembles the two plates out of which one is xed and the vibration is
transferred to the other plate via the rocking plate. The vibration provided is of repeated hammering nature. Due to this vibration,
the fasteners will begin to loosen and the corresponding clamping force will decrease. The schematic diagram of the testing device
is shown in Fig. 1, as also referred in Ref. [10]. Fig. 2 shows the pictorial view of the testing rig.
This continuous decrement in clamping force with the number of revolutions will be a measure of loosening. The above
proposition is the key behind the designing and fabrication of the test rig.
The eccentricity of the cam is so designed that at the end of the rocking plate, where the bolts is clamped, the amplitude
becomes 0.175 mm and the plate rocks at a xed frequency of 3 Hz. The frequency of the vibration can be changed by changing the
pulley step.
The indigenously made testing machine consists of a motor, a beltpulley drive, a rotating cam, a rocking plate, a testing area
for fastening and a load cell (compression type, MakeSushma, Bengaluru, India, Model SLC-302) along with the indicator.

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the testing rig.

3.2. Experimental conditions

For carrying out the experiments and to judge the anti-loosening ability of the screwed fasteners the bolts used were Metric
type (M16 and M10, both of High Tension Steel (HTS), having 2 mm and 1.5 mm pitch respectively and 5/8 in. BSW HTS threaded
bolts and Low Carbon Steel (LCS) bolt, having 11 TPI; 3/8 in. HTS, LCS and Stainless Steel (SS) bolt having 16 TPI. The initial
tightening torque was 1.5 ton for M16 HTS bolt, 0.8 ton for M10 HTS bolt and 3/8 in BSW HTS, SS, LCS bolts, 1.3 ton for 5/8 in. BSW
HTS, SS bolts. The number of oscillations up to which the constant decrease in clamping force measured was 10,200. The different
types of nuts and washers used for the clamping of the fasteners were Conventional Nuts, Flat Washer, Spring Washer, Inside
Serrated, Outside Serrated washers, Double nuts, Nylock nut, Nylon washer, Cleveloc Nut, Chemical lock (Locktite) and Aerotight
nut. All the experiments were repeated for three times.

Fig. 2. Pictorial view of the testing rig.

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Fig. 3. Comparison of loosening for Metric High Tension Steel Bolt (M16) with different nuts.

4. Results and discussions

Fig. 3 shows the comparison of loosening for metric (M 16) High Tension Steel Bolt with different nuts. The plot shows that the
use of at washer can reduce the loss of clamping force to a little extent. The double nut can also effectively reduce loosening.
Chemical locking is found to be a comparatively good anti-loosening fastener under vibration, following nylock nut. On the other
hand, the inside serrated washer shows a better anti-loosening ability than outside serrated washer.
Loosening tendency of metric (M 10) High Tension Steel Bolts with different nuts is compared in Fig. 4. Here the use of at
washer and nylon washer can reduce the loosening of conventional nut to some extent. Nylon washer has better anti-loosening

Fig. 4. Comparison of loosening for Metric High Tension Steel Bolt (M10) with different nuts.

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Fig. 5. Comparison of loosening for 5/8 in. BSW High Tension Steel Bolt with different nuts.

ability than at washer if properly used between two at washers. Chemical lock has the better anti-loosening property than
others. Nylock nut also has considerable ability to resist loosening under vibration. Double nut, if properly tightened, can provide
good resistance to loosening. Outside serrated washer and spring washer lies in the middle on the basis of anti-loosening property.
The loosening with conventional nut and at washer is always faster than all other nuts. If the threaded fasteners are categorized
according to their anti-loosening property, then conventional nut, at washer shows very little effect on anti-loosening; spring
washer, nylon washer and serrated washers exhibit moderate anti-loosening ability, whereas double nut, nylock nut, and chemical
lock provide the best anti-loosening ability under vibratory conditions.
Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the variation of loosening torque with number of oscillations for a 5/8 in. BSW bolt of high tension steel
and stainless steel bolts respectively. In Fig. 5, it is seen that the nylock nut and chemical locking nut have comparatively good antiloosening property. Cleveloc nut cannot prevent loosening effectively. Spring washer and serrated washer (both inside and

Fig. 6. Comparison of loosening for 5/8 in. BSW Stainless Steel Bolt with different nuts.

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Fig. 7. Comparison of loosening for 3/8 in. BSW High Tension Steel Bolt with different nuts.

outside), can reduce loosening to some extent, whereas Fig. 6 shows that Chemical lock nut has comparatively high resistance to
loosening followed by nylock nut. Inside and outside serrated washer have also enough ability to resist loosening under vibration.
Spring washer has considerable anti-loosening effect compare to at washer.
Figs. 7, 8 and 9 provide the variation of loosening torque with number of oscillations for a 3/8 in. BSW bolt of high tension steel,
stainless steel and low carbon steel bolts, respectively. Among the three types of fastening materials, low carbon steel being a
ductile material, can deform easily under high tightening torque resulting in high contact friction between the fastening elements
and hence, tends to resist loosening. However, high tension steel and stainless steel are commonly harder materials than low
carbon steels, and do not deform easily making it suitable for repetitive use. Due to high surface nish of stainless steels, actual
contact area between the fastening elements becomes large leading to high contact friction reducing the tendency for possible
loosening under vibration. According to Fig. 7, very little improvement has been found using Flat washer over conventional nut,
nylon washer has better resistance to loosening than a at washer, if properly used between two at washers. On the other hand,
cleveloc nut does not have enough anti-loosening property like aerotight nut. Double nut has good anti-loosening ability if

Fig. 8. Comparison of loosening for 3/8 in. BSW Stainless Steel Bolt with different nuts.

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Fig. 9. Comparison of loosening for 3/8 in. BSW Low Carbon Steel Bolt with different nuts.

properly tightened. Chemical lock shows comparatively better method of reducing loosening under vibration followed by nylock
nut. Fig. 8 shows that chemical locking has better anti-loosening property compared to the others. The nylock nut shows
considerable resistance to loosening followed by outside serrated washer. Spring washer and double nut can also reduce the
tendency to loosening under vibration to some extent. However, double nut does not show (Fig. 9) good results consistently. Flat
washer can reduce the loosening to some extent. Spring washer and outside serrated washer are found to reduce loosening
considerably. Chemical locking is the best method of preventing loosening followed by nylock nut.
Fig. 10 shows the comparison of loosening for 3/8 BSW low carbon steel bolt with conventional nut when tested with different
initial clamping forces. The plot shows that for every initial clamping force, the nature of loosening is almost the same, i.e. for rst
few oscillations, the loosening is higher and after certain number of oscillations the rate of loosening becomes slower. The
percentages of loosening after 5000 oscillations corresponding to the different initial clamping forces are shown in Table 1.

Fig. 10. Comparison of loosening for 3/8 in. BSW Low Carbon Steel Bolt with conventional nut for different initial clamping force.

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Table 1
Loosening at different initial clamping forces for 3/8 in. BSW low carbon steel bolt.
Initial clamping force (ton)

Percentage of loosening

0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2

8.51
14.91
13.48
9.14
8.07
3.32
3.19
3
1.2

Fig. 11. Comparison of loosening for M16 High Tension Steel Bolt with conventional nut for different initial clamping force.

From the Table 1, it can be said that for higher initial clamping force, total loosening is lower for BSW low carbon steel bolt. But
for extensively higher clamping force, the thread as well as the bolt may be deformed and the loosening is lower when the initial
clamping force is higher than 0.8 ton.
Fig. 11 shows the comparison of loosening for M16 High Tension Steel Bolt with conventional nut when tested with different
initial clamping force. Here, it is seen that for all initial clamping force, the loosening trends are almost the same. The initial
loosening rate is quite high. The total loss of clamping force for different initial clamping forces is shown in Table 2.

Table 2
Loosening at different initial clamping forces for M16 high tension steel bolt.
Initial clamping force (ton)

Percentage of loosening

0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8

15.81
6.4
6.0
5.9
3.4
3
2.5
2.5
2.7
3
3.6

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In the case of M16 high tension steel bolt, the percentage of loosening was calculated after 10,200 oscillations and it was found
(Table 2) that the loosening is minimum when the initial clamping force is more than 1.1 ton. The reason behind this may be that,
for higher initial clamping force, the fastener may undergo higher deformation at the contact points leading to more frictional
resistance to loosening. However, very high force may damage the fastener. Hence, appropriate initial tightening torque is to be
applied on a threaded fastener that can restrict loosening.
5. Conclusions
From the results obtained of repetitive experiments with different combinations of fastening elements, the following
conclusions may be drawn.
(i) Not only the bolt material, but other fastening elements such as nuts or washers also play a key role behind the antiloosening property of the fasteners; the initial tightening torque also plays a signicant role behind the self-locking
property of fasteners.
(ii) Possibly because of high surface nish, the stainless steel bolts show better resistance to loosening than that of high tension
steel and low carbon steel bolts.
(iii) Out of several anti-loosening fasteners tested, chemical locking provides the best anti-loosening ability followed by nylock
nut and aerotight nut. Aerotight and nylock nuts have less possibility to loose under hostile vibrating conditions, but the
effect decreases considerably with repetitive use.
(iv) Spring washer, inside serrated and outside serrated washers also provide considerable anti-loosening property, but gets
damaged after single use.
(v) It is found that at washers and nylon washers do not prevent loosening, but spring washers and double nuts show
considerable resistance against loosening.
(vi) For metric as well as BSW threaded bolts, with the increase in clamping force, the percentage of loosening shows an overall
decrease because of possible deformation and/or larger contact area between fastening elements.
Acknowledgement
The authors sincerely acknowledge the All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi for the nancial support to
undertake the project vide sanction letter Ref. 8018/RDII/BOR/R&D(244)/99-2000 dated March 24, 2000.
References
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[4] K. Hongo, Loosening of bolt and nut fastening, Transaction of Japan Society Mechanical Engineering 30 (1964) 215.
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