Bolt Bearing Pressure Calculator
Enter the load and bolt geometry to find the bearing stress.
Result
How to use
- Enter your values in the fields above.
- Press Calculate to see your result instantly.
- Use the Share button to copy a link to your result.
About this calculator
Bearing pressure (or bearing stress) at a bolted connection is the contact stress between a bolt shank and the wall of the hole it passes through, calculated as the applied force divided by the projected area of contact — bolt diameter multiplied by plate thickness, not the full cylindrical surface area.
This simplified projected-area model is the standard approach used in steel design codes such as AISC and Eurocode 3 to check that a connection won't fail by the bolt hole elongating or tearing out (bearing failure), one of several failure modes — alongside bolt shear and plate net-section rupture — that must each be checked independently in a bolted joint.
Structural and mechanical engineers compute bearing stress to confirm it stays below the material's allowable bearing strength, which is typically a multiple of the plate's yield or ultimate strength specified in the applicable design code.
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