Stresses and strains in a race track strap with a radial clearance

In certain situations it is desirable to transfer only tensile loads between two points in a structure whilst minimising any stress concentrations. In such circumstances a so-called race track strap can be utilised. The strap consists of two semi-circular elements that transfer the load, from bolts at each end, to two parallel flexible elements joining the whole together. The strap is loaded in tension by means of these bolts. This paper considers the situation where there is clearance between the bolts and the semi-circular elements of the strap. To develop an analytical model, it is assumed that engineering beam theory is applicable, that the influence of the membrane strains can be ignored and that the clearance is small as compared with the bolt and strap radii. It was found that the simple analytical model compared well with both finite element calculations and experiments