Brian Egan

8.10 Design, Testing and Analysis of Bolted Joints and Connections

This chapter explores the design, testing and analysis of composite bolted joints and begins with a review of literature relating to joint mechanical behavior. The fundamental influence of joint geometry and stacking sequence on the joint response is discussed along with the significant effects of bolt–hole clearance, lateral constraint and loading velocity. The large number of studies featured in the literature review is an indication of the complexity involved in optimizing composite bolted joint design. In order to handle this complexity, accurate 3D FE modeling is considered an invaluable aid in the design of composite bolted joints and is a key focus of the chapter.

3D Explicit Simulation of Bearing Failure in Composite Fuselage Joints

A typical FE model of a countersunk joint is shown in Fig. 2, where boundary conditions simulate in-plane loading. The mesh is refined near the fasteners to capture high stress gradients and contact conditions are enforced using the general contact algorithm of Abaqus/Explicit. The inclusion of interior contact surfaces facilitates simulation of progressive hole crushing featured in bearing failure.