Partial loss of contact in interference fit pin joints

Interference fits are an effective method for improving the fatigue performance of bolted joints. The use of Taperlok bolts in aircraft joints is one such example. One of the most important but difficult problems to analyse in these joints is their behaviour after the onset of separation between pin and plate.Extensive work has been done in the past for the analysis of interference fit joints prior to separation. A comprehensive survey of this area (up to 1965) was brought out by Venkataraman. He also presented many new analytical solutions by a direct method of continuum analysis for interference joints in finite domains. Analysis of these problems in the pre-separation zone continues to draw attention and recently, John Crews used a complex variable technique to analyse the stresses around a flexible pin in an infinite plate under uniaxial tension.