Polymer Composites in the Aerospace Industry

11

Design and failure analysis of composite bolted joints for aerospace composites

C.T. McCarthy,  and M.A. McCarthy     University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Abstract

This chapter presents an experimental and numerical study on the design and failure analysis of composite bolted joints. The primary geometrical variable under investigation is bolt-hole clearance, and is chosen as it induces significant three-dimensional stresses into the joint, and significantly alters the bolt-load distribution in multi-bolt joints, and so provides a rigorous test case. It is shown that increases in bolt-hole clearance lead to higher stresses at the bolt-hole, and this in turn causes both matrix and fibre damage to occur earlier in the loading history. Hence, ...