Measurement of the clamping force applied by load-bearing bolts using a combination of compression and shear ultrasonic waves

Quantitative measurement of the clamping or tightening force of rods and bolts is important when assessing the structural integrity of various constructions. This paper shows that by using a bi-wave ultrasonic pulse-echo technique, it is possible to determine this tightening force without the need of extensive calibration prior to installing the bolts. We show that the ratio of the time-of-flight (TOF) between the transversal and the longitudinal waves changes linearly with the clamping force and that we only need to know the TOF of the unstrained bolt prior to installment. This is then demonstrated experimentally on a 1.1 m rock bolt, using pulses that propagated 6.6 m. Two different methods for estimation of the TOF ratio are evaluated.