Study on the Failure Behavior of Bolted Connections in Vessel Made of GFRP Laminates

Abstract

A combined numerical and experimental study is conducted to investigate the failure behaviour of bolted connections in vessel made of GFRP laminates. An incremental 3D FEM code, based on the progressive damage model, is developed for determining the stress distributions, damage propagation and ultimate bolted joint strengths of the FRP laminates with different stacking sequences and degrees of lateral clamping. Next, the bearing strength model test is performed to investigate the failure behaviour of the S-500 glass/polyester laminate specimens. The results show that the stacking sequence significantly affects the interlaminar stress concentration on the hole boundary as well as the failure behaviour of pin joint in GFRP laminate. Furthermore, the introduction of a suitable lateral clamping generally improves the normal interlaminar stress state at a bolted joint and also increases the initial delamination strength as well as the ultimate strength of bolted connections in GFRP laminates.