Experimental study on birefringence effect in high-tension bolts

Bolts widely used in machine parts and assemblies are pre-loaded to prevent the parts from separating and to maintain the strength of the assemblies. Conventional technique for measurement of this axial stress applied to bolts is torque meter, but it has two disadvantages. The first one is its inherent inaccuracy. The second is that the stress cannot be determined after assembly without twisting bolts. The most promising technique for measurement of the axial stress is the acousto-elasticity. In this study, a new acousto-elasticity technique based on birefringence principle is proposed and tested to measure the axial stress in bolts which uses two longitudinal and shear waves instead of two horizontally polarized shear waves. From experimental results, the difference between the longitudinal and shear wave velocity is shown to be linearly related to the applied stress and be able to be used effectively to monitor the axial stress in bolts.