Abstract. A detailed study of the stresses that are developed in a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) tee joint under service loads is described. The joints are fabricated by laminating a boundary angle over a radiused fillet on either side of the 'tee'. Full-field stress characterisation data is provided by a thermoelastic analysis of the tee joint. Calibration procedures that allow the thermoelastic data to be compared with the results of a finite element analysis are detailed. The results of the thermoelastic analysis are compared with values obtained from the finite element analysis. The applicability of thermoelastic analysis as a validation tool for finite element models of composite materials is assessed.

Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) sandwich construction incorporating PVC foam cores is becoming an increasingly used structural topology in the case of ships, boats and offshore structures. A critical part in such structures is the connection between two orthogonal plate assemblies such as bulkheads and shell plating. This is usually in the form of a laminated teejoint. The purpose of this paper is to characterise the behaviour of such connections in terms of key stress components in the various constituent elements of the tee. This is done in context of various joint geometries and loading regimes. It has been shown that the collated results can be presented in the form of regression equations which are functions of geometry and which can then be used for design synthesis purposes.

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