Bolt shear force calculated per shear plane

If you are surprised that the shear forces in the analysis results of bolts differ from what you expect, then there are most probably more shear planes in the observed bolts.

For a bolt group under shear, the analytical approach assumes equal distribution of shear force per each bolt. Therefore shear resistance of the connection is calculated as the shear strength of one bolt multiplied by the number of bolts, and a simple check is done against the total acting shear.

IDEA StatiCa Connection uses a different and more precise approach. Thanks to the CBFEM technology, shear forces are calculated for each bolt separately. If there are more shear planes across a bolt, the acting shear force is calculated precisely for each plane separately.

The connection resistance is analyzed per bolt, and each bolt is checked separately against the highest shear value from all its shear planes.

In the results tab, shear force values per plane in one bolt are shown together and separated by a slash (/).