Abstract
Bolted joints are widely used in composite aircraft structures, for their assembly. The appropriate bolted joint configuration (hole/bolt diameter, pitch, etc.) is carefully selected during the detail design phase, where high fidelity numerical models are required with substantial computational cost and time. This work presents a design criterion, which allows the selection of the bolted joint configuration during the preliminary design phase with less computational time. The developed design criterion is based on a fully parametric finite element (FE) model, built in ANSYS V19 (Canonsburg, PA, USA), of a bolted joint with progressive damage modelling (PDM) capabilities, so that the failure of the joint can be predicted. From the numerical analyses, the bearing load and the load that bypasses the hole are calculated, up to failure, for a variety of joint configurations and loading conditions. The results of each analysis are used for plotting the failure envelope for the investigated bolted-joint configuration. Consequently, a design criterion is generated for the bolted joint. The availability of these failure envelopes, as design criterion, permit the appropriate selection of the bolted-joint configuration in an earlier design phase saving valuable time and computational cost.
Highlights
Bolted joints are widely used in almost all aerostructures [1,2,3,4,5]
The methodology is based on the solution of a parametric numerical model of a bolted joint under different bearing to bypass ratios up to failure
The failure of the bolted joint is identified through the employment of progressive damage modelling (PDM) using suitable failure criteria and degradation rules under an iterative analysis
Summary
Bolted joints are widely used in almost all aerostructures [1,2,3,4,5]. A characteristic example is the joint that exists between the wing’s skin (upper and lower) and the spar flanges. Regarding the failure analysis of the hole, according to the literature, progressive damage methods [19], curve methods [11,12], and failure envelope methods [10,20] are mainly employed These methods require extreme computational effort and run time due to the variety of failure mechanisms that exist and may appear in a composite material and must be covered. The analysis of the joint is carried out using progressive damage modeling (PDM) for the composite plate Following this method, the experimental tests can be fully substituted by virtual experiments in a computer and a variety of bolted joint configurations can be studied up to failure without performing any experimental tests. The applicability of this methodology is demonstrated for the case of a bolted joint configuration between the spar flange and the skin of an aircraft wing
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