Analysis of Composite Bolted Connection Joints Under Out of Plane Loading

Abstract

The use of composite joints has been increased in recent years in structural applications such as aircraft, civil engineering structure, ship structure, wind energy sector, and automotive industry. In this paper, the behaviour of composite bolted connection joints under out of plane loading is investigated. A parametric study was conducted to study the joint stiffness variation with various geometric parameters, which include the edge distance, bolt diameter, plate width, and the laminate stacking sequence. The experimental work was conducted on GFRP tension clips (L-angle) joint specimens manufactured by the vacuum infusion technique. In the present work, two types of laminates were used, unidirectional laminates [0°]5 with an areal density of 1050 gm/m2, triaxial laminates [−45°/+45°/0°]5 with an areal density of 1200 g/m2. A 3D finite element (FE) model was developed to study the effect of joint parameters on its stiffness. Finite element models were constructed, and the experimental results were used to validate the finite element models. The analysis concluded that the failure load increases when the edge distance to bolt diameter ratio (E/D) increases and the triaxial stacking sequence is better than unidirectional. The (E/D) ratio, the (W/D) ratio and stacking sequence were found to be very significant parameters.