ABSTRACT
Bolt-hole clearance effects on bearing strength of bolted joints in cross-ply, [0/90]2s,
glass fiber reinforced epoxy (GFRE) composites, were investigated experimentally
and numerically. A series of ASTM tests (tensile, compressive and shear) were
conducted on a unidirectional laminates to find the lamina properties, which were
used as input to a 3D developed progressive damage model (PDM). The model was
built with the aid of ABAQUS software, nonlinear Hashin failure criteria and Riccio
property degradation rules. The PDM was used to predict the failure load and mode
of composite bolted joint with bolt-hole clearance of 0, 50, 100, 200, 300 μm. Bearing
strength was determined according to three different criteria: load at 4% hole
deformation, first peak load and ultimate load. The numerical results of the ultimate
strength agree well with the experimental ones with a maximum deviation of 7.1 %.
Increasing the bolt-hole clearance from 0 to 300 μm reduces the contact area by
17.8% and increasing the contact pressure by 26.6 %. Accordingly, the 4% HDS, first
peak bearing strength, the measured ultimate strength and the predicted ultimate
strength were decreased respectively by 20.9%, 34.0%, 14.2% and 8.8%. On the
other hand, the failure mode did not affected by increasing the bolt-hole clearance
within the investigated values.