Preload anchor bolts on tall pressure vessels or similar structures?

[TomBarsh]

Related to thread181-27567,

Anyone involved in designing anchor bolts for tall pressure vessels or for similar structures (antennas, towers, stacks, etc) do you typically preload the anchor bolts or not?

Applying a preload certainly benefits the fatigue life (and tightness) of the anchor bolts but aren't contractors often reluctant to perform the work necessary to tighten such bolts to preload?

If you do preload, what level do you preload the bolts to?

(okay, I am now going off to re-read the "pretensioning" chapter in ASCE's "Anchor Bolt Design for Petrochemical Facilities")

 

[TomBarsh]

make that "thread507-96919"

 

[JWB46]

In my experience no. The bolts have to be tight, obviously, but I have not come across a requirement for pretension.

Hope this helps. I'd be interested to see what others experience is.