Experimental Determination of Bearing Strength in Fiber Reinforced Laminated Composite Bolted Joints under Preload

In this study, a failure analysis was carried out to determine bearing strengths of mechanically fastened joints with single bolt in glass—epoxy laminated composite plates. Two different geometrical parameters that were the edge distance-to-hole diameter ratio (E/D) and plate width-to-hole diameter ratio (W/D) were investigated. For that reason, E/D ratio was selected from 1 to 5, whereas W/D ratio was chosen from 2 to 5. Tensile tests were subjected to composite bolted joints for four different ply orientations such as angle-ply [0/30]s, [0/45]s, [0/60]s, and cross-ply [0/90]s. The major focus of this study was to observe the failure mechanisms of bolted joints under various preload moments as 0, 2.5, and 5 Nm. The experimental results showed that the magnitudes of bearing strengths in bolted joints were strictly influenced from increasing value of applied preload moments, changing of W/D and E/D ratios, and also ply orientations of laminated composite plates.