Failure load prediction of mechanically fastened composite joints

Abstract

With the wide application of fiber-reinforced composite material in aero-structures and mechanical parts, the design of composite joints has become a very important research area because they are often the weakest regions in composite structures. In this paper, a failure area index method is proposed to predict failure loads of mechanically fastened composite joints under plane stress condition with the same stacking sequence. The suggested failure area index method is shown to produce very favorable comparisons with measured failure loads of mechanically fastened composite joints with the difference well within 10% for all 17 cases investigated.