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2014
Conference Paper
Titel
Dimensioning method for bolted, adhesively bonded, and hybrid joints involving fibre-reinforced-polymers
Titel Supplements
Abstract
Abstract
The overall performance and efficiency of any structure depend on the connections that join their components; as such the connections constitute the most critical element. This is particularly true for hybrid structures, where joining of components, either between Fiber-Reinforced-Polymers (FRP) and/or to other materials is mostly achieved by the means of mechanical fasteners or adhesively bonding. Since these two joining methods come from radically different backgrounds, the resulting design procedures are almost incompatible. This paper aims to hand practitioners a unified dimensioning procedure for the two most frequent fastening methods in FRP structures, i.e. bolted and adhesively bonded joints. Simple double-lap joints connecting flat FRP lamellas and complex joints between FRP tubes and lamellas connected by the means of aluminum brackets were experimentally tested. The joints were numerically investigated using three dimensional finite element analyses coupled t o a probabilistic post-processing routine for strength prediction, which subsequently was validated against the experimental data. Good agreement between experimental and predicted strength was achieved, which validates the design process and allows generalizing the dimensioning of bolted and bonded FRP joints. The approach opens the door for the practical design of a wide variety of joints encountered in FRP structures.