Environmental effects on the failure of GRP multi-bolt joints

Abstract

Effects of environmental conditions on failure loads of multi-bolt tension joints in pultruded GRP (glassreinforced plastic) plate have been quantified by physical testing. A simple bolt layout-two bolts on the tension axis-was selected. Joint geometry was defined in terms of the end distance (E), the pitch distance (P), the side distance (S) and the bolt diameter (D). The joints were tested under four sets of environmental conditions: (a) normal (ambient temperature (, 208C) + dry), (b) hot (608C + dry), (c) wet (ambient temperature + 6 . 5 weeks in water), and (d ) hot-wet (608C + 6 . 5 weeks in water). They were also tested with various geometries-that is, three, two and two values of the ratios (E/D), (P/D) and (S/D) respectively. A total of 144 joints were tested. Damage and failure loads together with failure modes were recorded. The effects of environmental conditions and joint geometries on damage and failure loads have been quantified and load reduction (knock-down) factors have been established for each of the environmental conditions.

Mechanical Joining of Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites to Metals—A Review. Part I: Bolted Joining

“…The bearing strength of the specimens subjected to the immersion in water in 80 °C was reduced to only 22.5% of the strength before the immersion and the net-tension strength was reduced to 30.6% [ 41 ]. Turvey and Wang surveyed also pin loaded GFRP composite which had been immersed in water for 45 days at room and 60 °C temperature [ 57 ]. The most severe strength reduction was by 28% after the immersion in room temperature and by 56% after the immersion in 60 °C [ 57 ].…”

“…Turvey and Wang surveyed also pin loaded GFRP composite which had been immersed in water for 45 days at room and 60 °C temperature [ 57 ]. The most severe strength reduction was by 28% after the immersion in room temperature and by 56% after the immersion in 60 °C [ 57 ]. Soykok et al also investigated the strength of single lap shear glass/epoxy specimens with two bolts in a vertical row after aging in water at temperatures of 50 °C, 70 °C, and 90 °C for 1 and 2 weeks periods prior to the joint assembly and testing [ 54 ].…”

Effect of geometric parameters on the behavior of bolted GFRP pultruded plates

“…12–33 A few experimental results with multi-bolt connections can also be found. 34–40 Specimens were mostly loaded in double-lap configuration while few were loaded in single-lap configuration. 19,29,30 Figure 2(a) presents the geometric parameters as they are defined in this paper and the typical case of single-lap and double-lap configurations.…”

“…40 recommend the minimum ratio of g/d = 3 and s/d = 2.5. In addition to these geometrical parameters, reported studies also provide information on the influence of pultruded material orientation, 13,19,20,23,37 the type of fastener, 14 washer size, 12 hole clearance, 16,27 number of bolts and their arrangement, 34,37 environmental effect, 18,21,22, 24–26,31,39 and degree of orthotropy. 12,34 Abd-El-Naby and Hollaway 12,34 show that the failure mode is related to the proportion of CSM and CSR in the plate.…”

Experimental evaluation of bolt pull-through in pultruded glass-fibre-reinforced polymer plate

“…As part of this effort, several hundred tests on single and multi-bolt tension joints in pultruded GFRP plate have been reported (Cooper and Turvey, 1995;Hassan et al, 1997;Rosner and Rizkalla, 1995;Turvey and Wang, 2007, 2009a, 2009b. Moreover, several tens of tests on bolted beam-to-column/column-to-base joints between pultruded GFRP structural profiles, predominantly wide flange (WF) profiles, have also been documented (Bank et al, 1994(Bank et al, , 1996Bass and Mottram, 1994;Cooper, 1996, 2000).…”