Effects of Clearance on Thick, Single-Lap Bolted Joints Using Through-the-Thickness Measuring Techniques

Abstract

Composite materials have increasingly become more common in ground transportation. As this occured thicker panels, as compared to composite panels used in aviation, become necessary in order to withstand high impact loads and day to day degradation. The effectiveness of these panels was often limited by the strength of the joint in which the panel was attached to the frame of the vehicle. Investigating methods of reducing strain concentrations within these joints would increase the effectiveness in using composite materials in ground transportation applications by increasing the load necessary for joint failure to occur. In this study, fiber optic strain gages were embedded in a composite panel along the bearing plane of a thick, single-lap, bolted joint. The gages allow for the strain profile above the hole to be determined experimentally. Several clearance values were then implemented in the bolt to determine their effect on the strain concentrations. Strain increased at every gage, by nearly the same proportion, when clearance was increased from zero to three percent. When clearance was further increased to five percent strain only continued to increase at gages three and four, with one and two remaining similar in value to what was seen at three percent clearance. Ultimately, like in thin composite panels, the zero percent clearance condition was the stiffest.