Self-Loosening

Threaded fasteners can come loose on occasions without human intervention. This loosening can be due to creep, embedding, stress relaxation or the fastener self-rotating (which is often called vibration loosening). Creep, embedding and stress relaxation will generally not completely loosen a fastener, these loosening mechanisms occur without the nut rotating relative to the bolt.

The term self loosening is sometimes used for the nut rotating relative to the bolt without human intervention. It is know that the fastener can self rotate under the action of transverse joint movement that can completely loosen a tightened fastener such that the nut will become detached from the bolt.