Could I get a longer wrench please?

A fastener is a system of 2 objects - a bolt and a nut. You come across such a bolt/nut system tightened all the way, so that the nut and the top of the bolt are pressing against each other with a force of 5 N. If the nut is held fixed, how much torque in mJ does one need to put on the bolt to begin to unscrew it?

Details and assumptions

  • The radius of the bolt is R = 2 R = 2 mm.
  • The threads on the bolt are such that the bolt needs to rotate N = 20 cycles to move d = 1 c m d = 1~cm vertically away from the nut.
  • The friction coefficient between the bolt and nut is k = 0.5 k = 0.5 .


The answer is 4.60.

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1 solution

David Mattingly Staff
May 13, 2014

The bolt/nut system is no different than an inclined plane - it's just an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. Since you need to rotate the nut N times in order to move the distance d, the outer edge of the bolt needs to spin in the nut a total distance of 2 π N R 2 \pi N R . This is the same with an inclined plane of inclined angle x = arcsin d / 2 π N R x = \arcsin{d/2\pi N R} that “wraps” around the bolt’s axis. The force between the bolt hat and the nut is equal to F, which means there’s a force parallel with the bolt axis that pushes the bolt into the nut.

The normal force acting on the inclined plane is N = F c o s ( x ) N=Fcos(x) and the maximum friction force plus the component of F along the inclined plane is F r = k N F s i n ( x ) = F ( k c o s ( x ) s i n ( x ) ) F_r=kN-Fsin(x)=F(kcos(x)-sin(x)) , so in order to unfasten the bolt/nut system, you need to overcome the force F r F_r . When you put a torque M M on the nut, it is equivalent in the inclined plane picture to an extra force Q = M / R Q = M/R in the horizontal direction. The total force you need to overcome is F r + k M s i n ( x ) / R = F ( k c o s ( x ) s i n ( x ) ) + k M s i n ( x ) / R F_r + kMsin(x)/R= F(kcos(x)-sin(x)) + kMsin(x)/R along the plane:

F ( k c o s ( x ) s i n ( x ) ) + k M s i n ( x ) / R M c o s ( x ) / R F(kcos(x)-sin(x)) + kMsin(x)/R \leq Mcos(x)/R

M m i n = F R ( k c o s ( x ) s i n ( x ) ) / ( c o s ( x ) k s i n ( x ) ) \Rightarrow M_{min}= FR(kcos(x)-sin(x))/(cos(x)-ksin(x))

Plug in the numerical values and you get the answer!

Can you clarify more!

jafar badour - 6 years ago

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