Ultrasonics 44 (2006) e1339–e1342

www.elsevier.com/locate/ultras

Estimation of clamping force in high-tension bolts through

ultrasonic velocity measurement
a,*
Kyung-Young Jhang , Hai-Hua Quan b, Job Ha b, Noh-Yu Kim c

a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Haengdang-dong 17, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, South Korea
b
Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, South Korea
c
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, Seoul 330-708, South Korea

Available online 9 June 2006

Abstract

The estimation of clamping force has been regarded as the main issue in the maintenance of high-tension bolts. This paper proposes a
method which uses the dependency of ultrasonic velocity on stress based on the nonlinear elastic effect. The variation of ultrasonic velo-
city in the range of actual stress acting in the bolt is very small so that the precise measurement of ultrasonic velocity is needed. In this
paper, we adopt a method to measure ultrasonic velocity, where the TOF (time of flight) of a tone-burst ultrasonic wave is precisely
measured by using the phase detection technique. In order to verify the usefulness of the proposed method, two kinds of experiments
are carried out. The first one measures ultrasonic velocity when the bolt is stressed by the tension tester, and from this, the exact axial
force acting in the bolt can be determined. The results show good agreement with the expected linear relationship between ultrasonic
velocity and axial stress. The second experiment measures ultrasonic velocity when the bolt is stressed by the torque wrench. The results
show that ultrasonic velocity decreased as the torque increased, which is identical to the theoretically expected tendency. From these
results, it can be said that the proposed method is adequate in evaluating clamping force in high-tension bolts.
Ó 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: High-tension bolts; Clamping force; Ultrasonic nonlinearity; Ultrasonic velocity; Phase detection

1. Introduction of torque energy to clamping force. The angle control

High-tension bolts have been widely used for the clamp-
ing of many kinds of large structures, and for safety rea-
sons, it is very important to maintain the initial clamping
force. However, this clamping force gradually relaxes dur-
ing prolonged exposure to the alternating external load.
Therefore, its estimation has been regarded as the main
issue in the maintenance of high-tension bolts. For this,
several methods such as the torque wrench method [1],
the angle control method [2], the strain gage method, and
the ultrasonic method [3] have been used.
The torque wrench method estimates the clamping force
from the torque which is applied to clamp the bolt, but it
involves large errors due to friction loss in the conversion
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 2281 9206; fax: +82 2 2299 7207.
E-mail address: kyjhang@hanyang.ac.kr (K.-Y. Jhang).
method uses the linear relationship between the rotation
angle and axial force in an elastic region; however, it is
hard to find the elastic region in an actual experiment.
The strain gage method estimates the stress by measuring
elongation. However, it is probably impossible to attach
the strain gage to the clamped bolt in the field.
The ultrasonic method has been considered as a valu-
able method to directly measure clamping force which is
based on the fact that the velocity of the ultrasonic wave
propagated along the bolt depends on the axial stress.
The variation of ultrasonic velocity in the range of actual
stress acting in the bolt is very small so that the precise
measurement of such ultrasonic velocity is important in
this method. However, the conventional method that sim-
ply measures the TOF of the ultrasonic pulse wave in the
time domain is sensitive to noise. Thus, there is difficulty
in obtaining highly accurate results.

0041-624X/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2006.05.190
e1340 K.-Y. Jhang et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) e1339–e1342
Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a method that
uses the tone-burst ultrasonic wave and measures the
TOF by the phase detection technique in order to improve
accuracy in the measurement of TOF. The availability of
this method is verified through the experiment using exten-
sion tester specimen and actual high-tension bolts.
2. Principle of measurement
2.1. The relationship between stress and ultrasonic velocity
To demonstrate the dependency between stress and
ultrasonic velocity, the relationship of stress T and strain
S is represented by the linear elastic constant f and the non-
linear elastic constant g in Eq. (1) [4]:
S I ¼ fIJ T J þ gIJK T J T K ð1Þ
where I, J, K = 1, 2, . . . , 6.
Now, consider a rod loaded by the static axial stress r
and the ultrasonic longitudinal wave with amplitude A,
angular frequency x, and wave number k which is propa-
gated along this rod, as shown in Fig. 1. Then the strain
S in the axial direction related to the ultrasonic wave fre-
quency can be represented by Eq. (2).
S 2 ¼ A cosðxt  kyÞ  ðf22 þ 2g222 rÞ ð2Þ
The same strain can also be obtained from the equation
of motion as follows:
k2
S2 ¼ A cosðxt  kyÞ ð3Þ
qx2
Since Eqs. (2) and (3) should be identical, the ultrasonic
velocity C can be obtained as follows:
x 1=2
C ¼ ¼ ½qðf22 þ 2g222 rÞ ð4Þ
k
By introducing the parameter b defined by g222/f22,
which represents the ratio of nonlinear elastic constants
and linear elastic constants, Eq. (4) can then be rewritten as
1 and the initial dimension (L0). In this paper, however, both
C ¼ C 0 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð5Þ
1 þ 2br
where C0 is the initial velocity when the stress is not ap-
plied, which is equal to 1/(qf22)1/2.
This equation can also be linearized by assuming that
the nonlinear term is much smaller than the linear term
(i.e., 2br  1) as
C ¼ C 0 ð1  brÞ ð6Þ
When we use Eq. (6) to measure the axial stress in the
bolt, the precise measurement of ultrasonic velocity is
Fig. 1. Ultrasonic wave propagation along a rod loaded by axial stress.
important since the variation of this ultrasonic velocity is
very small in the range of the actual clamping stress.
2.2. Measurement of ultrasonic velocity
Fig. 2 shows the typical method which uses ultrasonic
wave to measure ultrasonic velocity. The ultrasonic wave
radiated from one side is received on the other side, and
we measure its TOF. Then the ultrasonic velocity is simply
calculated from the propagation length L and TOF T as
follows:
L
C¼ ð7Þ
T
However, since the propagation length is changed due to
elongation when the stress is loaded, ultrasonic velocity is
represented as Eq. (8):
L0 þ DL
C¼ ¼ C 0 þ DC ð8Þ
T 0 þ DT
where T0 and L0 respectively indicate the initial TOF and
length when the stress is not applied, while DT is the change
in TOF, and DL is the elongation when the stress is ap-
plied. Furthermore, C0 is the initial ultrasonic velocity
determined by L0/T0, and DC is its change when the stress
is applied.
From Eq. (8), the change rate of ultrasonic velocity is
represented by Eq. (9), where the terms of second or higher
order of minute increments are neglected:
DC DV DL
¼ þ ð9Þ
C0 V0 L0
where V is the apparent velocity defined by L0/T, and
V0 = L0/T0 = C0 and DV = V  V0.
Combining this equation with Eq. (6) after the replace-
ment of the strain term DL/L0 by r/E (E is the elastic mod-
ulus) produces the direct relationship between the stress
and the TOF. Thus the stress can be estimated by just mea-
suring the TOF with known material properties (b, E, C0)
of TOF and strain are measured to verify only that DC/C0
obtained by Eq. (9) has negatively linear relationship with
the stress as shown in Eq. (6). Also the phase detection
method is adopted for the precise measurement of TOF
instead of conventional pulse-echo technique that is sensi-
tive to noise.
In the phase detection method, the monotone signal is
preferred, so we use the RF tone burst wave of which the
Fig. 2. TOF measurement.
 K.-Y. Jhang et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) e1339–e1342 e1341

shows this tension test. 5 MHz ultrasonic transducers are

located on the top and bottom of the sample to measure
the TOF, and SNAP5000 (Ritec, USA) is used for the drive
and reception of the ultrasonic wave signal. In addition, the
extension meter is used to simultaneously measure the
elongation.

4. Experimental results and discussion

Figs. 5–7 show the tension test results for the two sam-
ples: the change rate in elongation, the apparent velocity,
Fig. 3. Measurement of TOF by phase detection. and the ultrasonic velocity, respectively, when the stress
is increased up to 450 MPa by 30 MPa step. The strain
frequency is F, as shown in Fig. 3. Then the phase delay / shows a very stable and linear relationship with stress.
between the transmitted signal and the received signal is The apparent velocity decreases linearly according to the
measured by the quadrature phase detection algorithm as increase in stress, and it also shows a very stable tendency
in Eq. (10) [5]: with small variations. Fig. 7 is obtained from these data
  according to Eq. (9). As expected from Eq. (6), it shows
x2 ðtÞ
/ ¼ tan1 ð10Þ
x1 ðtÞ
where x1(t) is the low-pass filtered value of the received sig-
nal multiplied by the cosine wave, and x2(t) is the low-pass
filtered value of the received signal multiplied by the sine
wave. Finally, the time delay T can be obtained as follows:
/
T ¼ ð11Þ
2pF

3. Experiments

In order to verify the usefulness of the proposed

method, two kinds of experiments are carried out: The first
one measures ultrasonic velocity when the bolt is stressed
by the tension tester, and from this, the exact axial force
acting in the bolt can be determined. The second experi-
ment measures ultrasonic velocity when the bolt is stressed
by the torque wrench. The high-tension bolt used in the Fig. 5. Result of tension test: strain vs. stress.
experiment is M16/10.9T. The tension tester specimen is
fabricated according to the tension test standard. Fig. 4

Fig. 4. Configuration of tension test. Fig. 6. Result of tension test: change rate of apparent velocity vs. stress.
e1342 K.-Y. Jhang et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) e1339–e1342
Fig. 7. Result of tension test: change rate of ultrasonic velocity vs. stress.
Fig. 8. Result of tension test: change of ultrasonic velocity vs. torque.
that ultrasonic velocity linearly depends on stress. From
these results, it is possible to validate the usefulness of
the proposed technique.
Fig. 8 shows the torque test results for the three samples
when the torque is applied up to 220 Nm by 30 Nm step.
The result shows that ultrasonic velocity decreases as the
torque increases, which is identical to the theoretically
expected tendency.
5. Conclusions
In this study, the conventional ultrasonic method to
evaluate the clamping force (or stress) of a high-tension
bolt, which is based on the stress dependency of
ultrasonic velocity, was upgraded in the TOF measure-
ment by adopting the phase detection technique. Fur-
thermore, its usefulness was experimentally proven. The
tension test result showed a very good linear correlation
between stress and ultrasonic velocity as expected in the
theory, and the torque wrench test result also showed the
same tendency. From these results, the possibility of the
proposed method to evaluate axial force could be
verified.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support of KESRI (R-2004-B-127) which was funded by
the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy
(MOCIE).
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