I saw my name mentioned so I thought I would chime in.
Though my current AISC seminar does not directly address lifting lugs, it has come up, and I am sure I have cautioned against using Chapter D “as is”. The pin-connected members discussion in Chapter D of the AISC Specification is not intended to address lifting lugs. One reason for this is that the pin connections in Chapter D assume a tight fitting pin with less than 1/32” clearance. It would be unusual for a lifting lug to have 1/32” clearance.
This is not to say that Chapter D cannot be modified for use with lifting lugs. The first thing that would have to change is the factor of safety (omega in the 13th Edition Manual). There can be a lot of uncertainty surrounding the loads and impact factors for lifting lugs. The factors of safety in the AISC Specification are not set to account for this level of uncertainty. Ricker in his paper suggests a factor of safety of 5. This corresponds to the OSHA requirements as I read them. ASME BTH-1 seems to use a lower factor of safety.
As stated, it would be unusual for a lifting lug to have 1/32” clearance, so adjustments must be made. Typically I have made these adjustments based on the paper, “Pin Clearance Effect on Pinned Connection Strength” by Duerr and Pincus. Duerr is a member of the committee that writes ASME BTH-1.
Concerning the bearing check: The ASME BTH-1 bearing check is not a strength limit state but rather is used to limit deformation. The AISC bearing checks serve the same purpose. Again, the checks in J7 assume a close fit, so this is not an appropriate check. A better option might be the checks in J3.10. As was stated by some of the other contributors, the ASME checks depend on the number of cycles. Often lifting lugs are subject to few, or even one, cycle so the comparison between AISC and ASME requirements should be based on the 1.25 coefficient in ASME not the 0.63. Another difference that must be accounted for is that ASME uses Fy and AISC uses Fu. Since this check is based on empirical data, it is not surprising these kinds of differences exist. If we adjust the 1.25 in ASME BTH-1 from Fy to Fu assuming A36 steel and assume a factor of safety of 3, the more conservative value used, we get (1.25/3)(36/58)= 0.295. For the AISC requirement, assuming a bearing check where significant deformation is tolerable, we get 1.5/5=0.3. If significant deformation at the hole cannot be allowed, we get 1.2/5=0.24. From this we can see that the two requirements are not all that different. Ricker recommends 0.9Fy, which when used with the suggested safety factor of 5 would be much more conservative than either ASME or AISC.
The Commentary to ASME BTH-1 states that there all 4 strength limit states that must be considered: net tension perpendicular to the load, single plane shear rupture parallel to the load, double plane shear rupture parallel to the load, and out-of-plane buckling (dishing) of the plate.
Both the AISC and ASME requirements address all of these limit states, though at times in different ways.
The net tension check is essentially the same. Using the AISC D5 check with a factor of safety (omega) of 5, as suggested by Ricker and OSHA, the AISC check will always be more conservative than the ASME check. It should be noted that Duerr and Pincus sound that the clearance effect was less pronounced when the strength was governed by net tension, so it makes sense that the two standards take essentially the same approach.
Buckling in both standards is prevented by limiting the effective width of the plate. This is done somewhat differently, but the intent is the same. Since the approaches involve different variables, it cannot be determined whether one approach is always more conservative.
The most significant difference is in the checking of shear. The AISC equation assumes a tight fitting pin, and since Duerr and Pincus found a significant clearance effect on this limit state, the AISC values must be adjusted to account for this effect. The two approaches also differ in that AISC limits the dimension “a” relative to “b”. I believe the intent is to prevent the single plane shear failure. Again since the two approaches use different variables, it is not easy to compare the two. However, the intent of each is the same.
Some comments should also be made relative to the Ricker paper, which is often used as a reference by the structural steel community. The Ricker paper does contain the same “a” to “b” relationship that is noted in AISC Chapter D. The Ricker paper does limit the “b” dimension (he calls this “a”), so does address the dishing problem. His limit is not as severe as that in AISC D5, it is the same as one of the ASME limits, but does not seem to correspond to the other ASME limit, so it might deserve a closer look. He also makes some recommendations relative to a lower bound thickness relative to the hole size, which he states are intended to prevent dishing. He also explicitly addresses the shear limits states, though again differently than either AISC or ASME. He does not seem to address the net tension limit state.
I agree that the basics have largely been overlooked in this thread, but the “cookbooks”, though they take somewhat different approaches, are all trying to address the same problem and all are based on the same sources. Johnston’s work conducted back in 1939 is common to AISC, ASME, and Ricker. Tolbert is cited by both ASME and Ricker. I have suggested modifying AISC D5 using Duerr, who is on the committee that writes ASME BTH-1 and whose work they cite.
Finally, I do not believe OSHA cites a standard in their regulations (though I may have missed something), so the design decisions seem to be left to the discretion of the engineer, which is probably a good thing. I have however seen OSHA reference the ASME standards in some answers to questions they have received.
Larry Muir