High Strength Bolting

JUST TWENTY YEARS ago Professor Wilbur Wilson, a
Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of
Illinois, played a major role in the founding of the Research
Council on Riveted and Bolted Structural Joints, the group
largely responsible for high-strength bolting as we know it
today. Since then, thousands of tests have been conducted on
high-strength bolts and bolted connections, specifications for
high-strength bolting have been issued by the Council, and
many millions of high-strength bolts have been used in
bridges and buildings.
The high-strength bolt rapidly took its place in the
structural field and has now become the "workhorse" fastener
for steel structures. Although this fastener has proven to be
extremely effective, occasionally trouble has been
encountered and questions have been raised concerning high-
strength bolting. Whenever such trouble has been
encountered, it has almost always been as the result of a lack
of understanding or improper application of the Council's
specification. To help counteract this problem, an attempt
will be made herein to provide some of the "whys" and
"wherefores" of high-strength bolting. Some of the questions
that are raised regarding high-strength bolting will be
examined, consideration will be given to some of the changes
that were introduced in the September, 1966 revision of the
Research Council's specifications for high-strength bolting,
and finally, some of the possible future changes and new
applications of high-strength bolting will be discussed.
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