Behaviour of Coir-Glass/Epoxy Double Lap Bolted Joint under Tensile Loading

Abstract

Experimental work on tensile behaviour and failure mechanism of composite double lap bolted joint has been carried out. Chopped strand mat (CSM) coir, glass and coir-glass/epoxy composite plates were fabricated by hand lay-up method. The bolted joint specimens were of 155 mm length and 48 mm width. Steel bolts of 4 mm and 8 mm diameters were used. Effect of material type, number of layers and width to diameter ration (w/d) on tensile load, bearing strength and failure behaviour were examined. Results show that, the maximum load obtained from the glass/epoxy, coir/epoxy and coir-glass/epoxy specimens increased with the increase in the number of layers and (w/d) ratio. Maximum load obtained from the six layers glass/epoxy with w/d ratio of 12 is found higher respectively 15.2% and 50.14% than that obtained from hybrid coir-glass and coir/epoxy composite specimens. The percentages of difference were 14.2% and 42.97% for the specimens with w/d ratio of 6. It has been found that the maximum strength of the six layers glass/ epoxy specimens was found higher in the range between 17.5% to 18.46 % and 51.67% to 57.74 % than the hybrid coir-glass and coir/epoxy specimens respectively. Net tension failure and cleavage failure modes were observed for the two and four layers coir/ epoxy specimens with w/d ratios of 6 and 12. Bearing failure mode was observed for the six layers coir, glass and hybrid coir-glass/epoxy specimens.