Can anyone advise an accepted method of determining bearing stress between a lifting Lug

and a shackle pin ? I cannot seem to find any standards or literature on the subject which I
would have thought was quite important.
If you have a Lifting Lug with a hole diameter, 'D' and a shackle with a pin diameter,'d' then
the bearing stress between them will be dependent on the contact angle between pin and
hole which will be dependent on the ratio of d/D ? ie if d/D is small then you will get a very
small contact area and high bearing pressure or if d/D is very close to 1 then contact angle
will be approaching 180^ with a low/minimum bearing pressure. The problem I have is how
do you work out contact area for values of d/D between 0 & 1 ?
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prex (Structural) 21 Nov
01 3:05
This is an Hertzian contact problem.
The formula you are looking for is
sigma=0.418 * sqrt(P*E*(1/R1-1/R2)/l)
where:
P is the applied load
E is Young's modulus (the formula is calculated for Poisson=0.3)
R1 and R2 are the radii of cylinders (R2 is of course the hole)
l is the width of contact
0.418 is a dimensional, so use consistent units
sigma is the maximum contact pressure.
The allowable value for sigma is of course much higher than the normal allowable stress
and is determined by fatigue considerations: if you take 2 times the yield stress, you are
still on the safe side.

Please note also that this contact stress is normally not the limiting factor for the lug-shear
pin assembly, also because they are used only occasionally.

You will also see that of course this formula is not valid for R1=R2, as it gives zero. In that
case the average bearing pressure on an area l*D is used and normally limited to 2.5 times
the allowable stress in tension.
Spoonful (Mechanical) 29 Jan 09
5:53
Hi all,

i am trying to do a stress analysis on a lifting lug.

the lifting lug will be made of SS316 flat bar, a hole will be drilled(dia D1)

a rod(dia D2) will fit in the hole to fiting the whole thing.

i rekon the weakest part on the lifting lug during lifting will be where the rod in contact of
the lifting lug.

assmue theres no offset angle between the contact face of the rod and the interal face of
the hole, the contact case can be treated as a cylinder inside of socket.

during lifting there will be deflaction of the lifting lug and the rod, so there will be a
rectangle shope contact face inbetween.

assume the lifting lug have a thickness of L. in order to know the contact area, the
question becomes what the width of the contact rectangle. in another word, how much

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deflection of each material?

i am trying to use stress=P/A

so which ever the smallest yield stress= P max/ A conatct

i didnt plan to go into the combined stress or pricinple stress details, i think just based on
the normal stress will give me a reasonable Pmax can be applied to the lifting lug. am i
right on this?

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Ron (Structural) 29 Jan 09
5:59
Shear stress parallel to the load application will control the thickness (t) of the
plate. Assuming the lug is welded to something else, shear stress in the welds will control
the amount of weld needed.

I don't mean to be unkind, but I hope your analysis is more careful than your spelling and
attention to details in you posting.
Spoonful (Mechanical) 29 Jan 09
6:07
thanks for the reply Ron,

i am not trying to see how much weld is need, i wanna to know at the contact point, within
the yield stress, what is the max load can be applied,

yeah, the spelling, blame the forum, theres no spelling check here, haha, just kidding.
GregLocock (Automotive) 29 Jan 09
6:12
Shifts key broken as well is it? Look up Hertzian contact stress.

Cheers

Greg Locock

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Ussuri (Civil/Environme) 29 Jan 09
8:07
I always design lifting points to have some offlead (out of plane line of force at an angle
thus generating minor bending on the lift point) on them. No offlead is the absolute best
you can achieve so I would suggest allowing for something should your load swing once
lifted.

Check at hole level: bearing contact stress, shear pull out, bending about hole due to
offlead force. If this causes problems you can add cheek plates.

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Check at base level: biaxial bending, tension, shear followed by checks on weld group
capacity

Check on structure attachment: check the structure you are lifting is strong enough to
transfer the load at the attachment point. No point designing a padeye for 50 tonnes and
then welding it to a 4mm plate.
rb1957 (Aerospace) 29 Jan 09
8:21
IMHO i think you're over-thinking this, worrying about the curvature of the bar in the lug ...

assuming that even if the bar fits well in the hole there will always be some clearance
(slding fit?). then "theoretically" the contact is a line (thru the thickness of the hole, where
the two circles contact). this'll lead to infinite hertzian stress, as the contact area is
zero. so the answer to your post is zero load (can be sustained without yielding).

but in reality local yielding on both parts will create a contact area, and i expect that this
will be of small scale so that when the load is removed both parts will return to their
original size (the small zone of permanent strain will be reacted by compressive stresses in
the surrounding material).

and, like Ron posts above, the welds are probably the critical loadpath ... so why so
interested in a non-critical component. assuming that you're got a reasonable clearance
between the pin and the hole, use Dbar*t as the contact area. btw, there are several other
ways for lugs to fail (bearing, shear tear-out, pin bending, ...)

and, btw, you're responsible for your spelling; it's a bit "Gen Y" to blame the forum.

Welding Size Calculation

I bumped into welding calculation problem when I was designing lifting lug which I
mentioned in my previous post. Suggested literature to be used is 'Design of Welded
Structure' by Omer Blodgett. Basically the whole book explain everything we need to
know about welding. It is very comprehensive, but what I like most about the book is
that the explanation presented in simple language. It is a big plus for a slow reader like
me =p.

Before actually go into welding size calculation, you have to at least know some basic
stuffs about welding. My suggestion is: read hehe. I had very little knowledge about
welding before, so I read some literature that explain the basic things about welding,
like:

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- There are 5 types of joint: butt, edge, corner, lap, and tee.
- There are 3 types of weld:
1. Groove, divided further into 2 types:
- Complete Joint Penetration (CJP)
- Partial Joint Penetration (PJP)
2. Fillet
3. Slot or Plug

- Part of weld joint we are most interested in: throat, = the weakest plan in the weld.

- Welding connection strength depends on 3 parameters:

- weld material strength
- weld length
- weld throat

Since weld length normally depends on the geometry of the parts to be connected, it is
thus fixed. Weld material strength is also a constant, since obviously it depends on the
weld material chosen. Hence, the only parameter we need to find out is weld throat size.

So how to determine weld throat?

Assume weld size, calculate stress distribution, iterate calculation to optimize weld size

Troublesome? Yes =p. That's why Mr. Blodgett introduces Line Method. In principle,
line method assumes welding area as a line (hence the name, 'line method'.. duh =p).
This assumption simplify the way calculation is done, especially when structure we're
interested in is subjected to more than one type of loadings ( i.e. tensile, compressive,
shear, bending, and twisting).

So how to determine weld size exactly? If you've managed to get hold of the
recommended book, go to section 7.4.

First of all, determine all types of load subjected to the structure we're interested in.

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Then assuming the weld is a line, calculate the stress created by the various loadings.
Since we assume weld as a line, and not an area, we will get the results in 'force per
length' (e.g. lbs/in or N/m).

For simple tensile, compressive, and shear loads, use table 4 to get the stress. For more
complicated bending and twisting loads, use table 5 to calculate weld properties
(sectional modulus and polar moment of inertia). These weld properties are then used
or combined to calculate applicable stress.

Next step is simply to divide the calculation result (force per length) by allowable stress
(force per area) from table 6, 7, 8, or 9. That's it, you'll find the required weld size.

Anyway if you dont understand the steps I described above, refer to section 7.4.8 titled
'Applying System to Any Welded Connection'. It describes step-by-step instruction on
how to determine weld size. Yeah, now you know that I copied it =p.

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Lifting Lug Calculation

If you are working in a manufacturing company, lifting lug is a very common thing that
you use in everyday basis. Common to to extent of being taken for granted. Few would
wonder how to design a proper sized lifting lug.

So when my boss asked me to design newer (aka higher) capacity range of lifting lug, I
have to turn to mr google to help me out =p.

It turned out there are very few literature available as a design base of lifting lug.
Actually there is only one publication solely explain it: 'Design and Construction of
Lifting Beams' by David T Ricker. Yeah I know it says lifting beams, not eye or pad or
lug, but it does explain lifting lug calculation.

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Basically the method offered by this publication is to design lifting lug by predicting
potential failure modes that may occur:
1. Tension failure at the sides of the hole
2. Crushing above the pin followed by tearing tension fracture at the plate edge
3. Shear failure in the lug plate as the pin attempts to plow its way toward the free edge
of the plate
4. Dishing (out of plane buckling) failure of relatively thin lug plates which laterally
unrestrained

Compare the results from 4 scenarios above, get the minimum, and you have the
allowable lifting capacity of the lug. As long as your load is below allowable capacity,
your lug (and your ass) is safe =p.

Since most of the time lifting lug is manufactured by welding few pieces of metal plate,
the tricky part is to determine welding size needed to withstand the load. In the
publication, the line method is briefly mentioned. I will explain this in my next post. I
still need to do my own work you see =p.

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Introduction

Despite the title 'Everyday Engineering', this blog is not meant to talk about engineering
matter per se. It's just that my current career is an engineer so I call it everyday
engineering to make it sounds cool huhuhu.

I'm very lazy u see, so if i dont have to do anything, i wouldnt do it. Simple thought,
seemingly harmless, but bad attitude for my future. By creating this blog, I will be able
to see what I have done, and more importantly what I need to do to further complement
my current knowledge.

Pls note that everything I write in this blog is based on my limited experience and a

Page 6 of 7
result of my thought (+ hours of daydreaming in my ..err.. cubicle). So you should read
it with a pinch of salt =p.

Knowledgebase Article 1054

Question: How does COMPRESS determine the allowable stresses for lifting lugs?
AnswerThe allowable stresses are shown in the "Lift Lug Allowable Stress" dialog that is accessed by clicking the "Allowable Stress Values" button on the Lifting
: Lug dialog. The allowable stresses can be specified by the designer or the default values may be used. The default values are found as described
below.
The allowable stresses are found as a multiple of the material yield stress. The factors for each type of stress are taken from the American Institute of
Steel Construction's (AISC) Allowable Stress Design (ASD) Specification (9th Edition) as follows, where Sy is the shell material yield stress:

tensile = 0.6 * Sy (AISC ASD 9th para. D1)

shear = 0.4 * Sy (AISC ASD 9th para. F4-1)

bearing = 0.9 * Sy (AISC ASD 9th para. J8-1)

bending = 0.66 * Sy (0.66 for a 'compact' section AISC ASD 9th para. F1-1)

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