Abstract. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center has funded a project to investigate the accuracy of various bolt models used to represent actual shipboard bolted connections within an analytical shock survivability assessment. The ultimate goal within this project is to develop finite element bolt representations that are not only computationally efficient, but also accurate. A significant task within this effort involved the development of highly detailed finite element models of bolted connections under various load configurations. Accordingly, high-resolution bolt models were developed and incorporated into simulations of four bolted connection test arrangements: static shear, static tension, dynamic shear, and dynamic tension. These simulation results are validated against experimental data from physical testing of each configuration. Future research will focus on exploring simplified finite element bolt representations and comparing these against the high-resolution results.

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center has funded research to examine a range of finite element approaches used for modeling bolted connections subjected to various loading conditions. Research focused on developing finite element bolt representations that were accurate and computationally efficient. A variety of finite element modeling approaches, from detailed models to simplified ones, were used to represent the behavior of single solid bolts under static and dynamic tension loading. Test cases utilized models of bolted connection test arrangements (static tension and dynamic tension) developed for previous research and validated against test data for hollow bore bolts (Behan et al., 2013). Simulation results for solid bolts are validated against experimental data from physical testing of bolts in these load configurations.