New conceptual bolted composite joint

1. Background
Composite materials are formed from two or more dissimilar materials, each of which
contributes to the final properties. Unlike metallic alloys, the materials in a composite
remain distinct from each other at the macroscopic level. Most engineering composites
consist of two materials: a reinforcement called a filler and a matrix. The filler provides
stiffness and strength; the matrix holds the material together and serves to transfer load
among the discontinuous reinforcements (Daniel, I. M., Ishai, O., Daniel, I. M., & Daniel,
I.,1994)
Nowadays the composite materials are commonly used in aircraft (Fig. 1) and space
structures due to their high specific strength, specific stiffness and superior damping (Zhai,
Y., Li, D., Li, X., & Wang, L. ,2015).

Figure 1. Aircraft structure made of Glare.

With numerous combinations of metal and composite, and numerous lay-up options, there
are wide varieties of possible laminate configurations, each with their own set of design
allowable. The failure modes of interest for composite materials are as follows:
 Blunt notch strength refers to the strength of a given plate material containing a
hole or other cut-out type. It is not a unique strength value, but one that depends
on the given notch size and stress concentration. In a mechanically fastened joint,
this failure can occur because of the joint bypass load interacting with the fastener
holes along given fastener row.
  Pin-loading failure is defined by a given amount of permanent deformation of the
pin-loaded hole. In a metallic material, this deformation is a result of plastic
deformation, while in a composite; it can be a result of delamination buckling or
material fracture (bearing failure). The pin load required to cause failure is typically
referred to as the bearing ultimate stress and is defined by the pin load divided by
the area defined by the pin diameter and sheet thickness.
 In eccentric mechanically fastened joints, such as the single-shear lap joint,
bending resulting from the eccentricity gives rise to tilting of the fastener, which
results in the fastener being loaded partially in tension. Under tensile load, the head
of a fastener may be pulled through the joined sheet, resulting in a fastener pull-
through failure. This is a well-known issue and has led to the development of many
special fasteners with head designs with enlarged footprints to avoid pull-through
failure in composite panels.
 Shear tear-out failure is a possible failure mode that occurs because of shear
stresses between a pin-loaded hole and the edge of the pin-loaded sheet
exceeding the ultimate shear stress of the pin-loaded material.
Although the idea of generating complete structural parts is quite temping, the limitations
of manufacturing processes trigger the need to use a device to assembly large composite
parts. Since conventional design methodologies developed for traditional materials are
not directly applicable for the analysis of composite materials, there is a broad spectrum
of joining techniques, specially developed for composite materials (Pramanik, A., Basak,
A. K., Dong, Y., Sarker, P. K., Uddin, M. S., Littlefair, G., & Chattopadhyaya, S., 2017):
 Adhesive bonding
 Diffusion bonding
 Self-piercing rivet technique
 Bolted joints
 Clinching
 Laser assisted welding
 Friction spot welding
 Friction lap joining
Due to the unique characteristic behavior of composite materials, a great effort to
understand failure modes in composite joint materials have been made. The Fig. 2 shows
a schematic summary of the principal failure modes known for bolted joints in composites
structures.

Figure 2. Schematics of different failure modes (Heimbs, S., Schmeer, S., Blaurock, J.,
& Steeger, S. 2013).

2. Literature Review
In the past years, many experimental and numerical analyses have been carried out
around several geometric and mechanical parameters in composite bolted joints.
Although the characterization of joint failure in bolted composite laminate is not a trivial
task, since there is a large number of parameters involved, numerous studies found in
specialized literature focus on the fastener features and the laminate geometry near the
joint, such as bolt diameter, bolt-hole clearance, plate width and thickness, end distance,
laminate stacking sequences and bolt pre-tightening. These studies are conducted in
order to establish a useful tool that can relate the aforementioned joint features to failure
modes and strength of the mechanically fasten laminates. The most common geometric
parameters analyzed in the technical literature are presented in Fig. 3.
The effects of bolt torque tightening on the strength of bolted fiber reinforced polymers
laminates, where the bearing failure mode was promoted, have been studied by
Giannopoulus et al. (2017) It was found that bolt torque pre-tightening has a positive
impact on the static strength of bolted joints. The data showed an increase in the joint
static strength with high pre-tightening levels. Changes in damage pattern and the zone
where failure takes place were observed with variations in the pre-tightening torque.
Relatively heavy torqued pre-tightened joints gave rise to failures further away the washer
and contact area.
Nerilli and Vario (2017) conducted a finite-element computational analysis aiming to
predict the bearing failure mechanism for composite bolted joints. The numerical data
showed that the bearing failure load increases nearly proportionally with the laminate
thickness, for unidirectional laminates, when the angle between the fibers and load
direction is smaller than 15°.

Figure 3. Geometric parameters on single bolted composite joint configuration.

Several configurations of single bolted joints have been experimentally analyzed by Sen
et al. [7] to investigate the effects of specific geometric parameters on the failure mode
and bearing strength of mechanically fastened composite bolted joints, made of glass fiber
reinforced epoxy laminates. The edge distance to hole diameter ratio (e/dh), plate width
to hole diameter ratio (w/dh) and the laminae fibers direction in the stacks were
considered. Additionally, various pre-tightening loads were applied. The study highlighted
that the bearing strengths of the composite laminate increase by increasing the width to
diameter ratio (w/dh) and the edge distance to diameter ratio (e/dh). Small bearing
strength, and cleavage, shear out or net tension failure modes occur for e/dh ratios near
1; for e/dh ratios higher than 2 the failure mode becomes bearing. In agreement with the
evidence provided by Giannopoulous (2017), the bearing strength arise when the preload
torque reaches higher levels. The laminae direction in the stacking sequence shows
significant influence on failure modes and bearing strength. The stacking sequence
[0°/0°/45°/45°]s showed better behavior than other laminate orientations.
A more recent experimental test conducted by Lee et al. (2015) investigates the effects of
the aforementioned geometric parameters, adding the effects of hole clearance (dh-db)
and bolt diameter to plate thickness ratio (db/t). The effect of hole clearance seemed to
be not significant if the hole clearance exceeded 2 mm. An increment in the failure load is
reported for an increase on the bolt diameter to plate thickness ratio (db/t), within the
range of 0.83 ≤ db/t ≤ 1.2. The effect of the hole diameter ratio (e/dh) and plate width to
hole diameter ratio (w/dh) agrees with the results reported by Sen et.al (2008).
Effects of bolt hole clearance on the stiffness and strength of carbon fiber/epoxy
composite bolted joints were investigated by McCarthy et al.(2002). Two different pre-
tightening torque levels were applied: a 0.5 Nm representing critical “finger tight”
conditions, and the recommended 16 Nm torque. Both protruding and countersunk head
bolts were tested. The bearing damage seemed to be more visible in countersunk bolts.
The experimental results showed a clear dependency between stiffness and clearance,
but not between clearance and ultimate bearing strength. The stiffness-clearance
dependency was present only in joints with “finger tight” bolts. Increasing clearance
resulted in a decrease of joint stiffness. The joints with protruding head bolts appeared to
be slightly stiffer.
Lopez-Cruz et al. (2017) investigated the effect of several factors on hybrid
(bolted/bonded) joints strength, by applying an analysis of variance (ANOVA) from the
design of experiments (DOE) methodology. The factors analyzed in the experiment
included adhered thickness, adhesive modulus, adhesive thickness, clamping area and
bolt-hole clearance. The results highlight that the hybrid joints are stronger than the bolted
or bonded joints alone. It was found that the failure initiation was delayed in hybrid joints
due to the presence of the bolts, in contrast with the bonded joints, where the failure was
sudden and catastrophic. The effects of the bolt-hole clearance and the clamping area
were negative at the maximum strength. A combined effect of the factors evaluated
seemed to be almost negligible.
Several studies on composite materials have been applied to analyze the performance of
joining composite. Yunong et al. (2015). experimentally investigated the effect of bolt-hole
clearance and bolt torque. They found that there is interaction between bolt-hole
clearance and bolt torque on joints stiffness lost and 2% offset bearing strength. The
surface strain distribution of the joints is highly concentrated around the hole the
deformation is notable. Bolt-hole clearance intensifies the surface strain concentration and
deformation due to reduced bolt-hole contact area. Bolt torque alleviates the surface strain
concentration by increasing friction in the joints, but has little effect on the plane
deformation. The specimen used in their experiments was carbon fiber/epoxy.
Nevertheless, another way to improve performance to composite joint is the multi bolted
joint. Jong-Hwa et al. (2014) proposed a new method for improving the strength of the
multi-bolted composite whit five bolts. They studied the displacement between the bolts
were calculated by finite element analysis. Their conclusions are that the failure strength
is greater with a greater clearance. They compare an open hole clearance of -50 µm with
0 µm, the clearance of -50 µm was 2.3-2.5 % higher. It was experimentally confirmed that
the load acted upon all bolts uniformly compared to the multi-bolted joint without
clearance. The failure strength was improved more than 13.1-21.8%.

3. Conceptual Design
Aiming for a solution to some of the main problems in composite joints previously
analyzed, a conceptual design was conducted with the help of the functional analysis
technique.
Several conceptual models were proposed, endeavoring to achieve an improvement in
the joint performance. Although double lap joins have shown better performance in real
assemblies, the models were constructed as a single lap join; keeping in mind that the
objective is to perform a functional analysis of the elements in the joint. A single lap join
model allows better understand of the joint behavior.
After the functional analysis of 40 preliminary ideas, two prototype models for the new
conceptual bolted composite joint were developed.
Both model’s characteristics are presented below:
 Model 1: The fastener is a hub, tightened by a screw and a washer in both plates
free surface. A hub substitutes the screw (in conventional composite bolted joints),
trying to reduce stress concentration in the threated bolt-composited interface.
 Also, neighboring hubs are linked by a sill plate, in the load direction, aiming for a
better load distribution in the free surface of the composite laminates.
 Model 2: A “U” shape fastener, tightened by a screw and a washer in both ends,
substitute the single hole-bolt arrangement in conventional composite bolted joints.
The flat side of the "U" shape fastener has an increased curvature towards the load
direction, allocating the load distribution on the opposite side of where the bearing
failure usually appear. Moreover, the “U” shape fastener reduce stress
concentration in the threated bolt-composited interface, preventing from cross-
thread failure in the bolt-hole interface between the screw and the composite
laminate. A “hump” is added in the interface between the two composite laminates,
aiming for rise in the contact area that enhances the friction for the “no slip”
condition” between plates. One of the plates has a "hump", while the other plate
has a "sink" where the "hump" of the first plate fits. In a composite-metal joint, a
“sink” can be easily machined in the metal element, and the “hump” can be added
with the help of a core in the composite laminate. A smooth curvature in the hump-
sink geometry avoids possible stress concentration.
From the two preliminary models aforementioned, a comparative analysis was conducted,
with the help of the decision matrix shown below. The factors and its weights were chosen
after the information pinpointed in the literature review.
MANUFACTURING

LOWER EFFECTS

BEARING TYPE
COMPONENTS
COMPOSITE

FAILURE

WEIGHT
NO SLIP

ON THE

COST
EASY

WEIGHT FACTOR 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 1

MODEL 1 8.5 6 8 9 4 4 6.9
MODEL 2 9 4.5 9 7 6 8 7.65
Table 1. Decision matrix for the comparative analysis of both preliminary models.
The Model 2 was selected as the design with a better conceptual performance, after the
comparative analysis conducted with the help of the decision matrix.
A CAD model was constructed for the Model 2, as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, for visual
porpoises, and futures numerical analysis. Fig. 6 shows drawings for different views of the
conceptual design proposed for Model 2.

Figure 4. “U” shape fastener CAD model. The fastener is tightened in both sides with a
screw and a washer, and the flat side of the fastener has a curvature towards the load
direction.

Figure 5. Lateral view of the new conceptual composite joint. The “hump” is added in the
interface between plates, below the flat plate of the fastener.
 a)

b)

Figure 6. a) Top view drawing of the new conceptual composite joint. b) Cross section
view along the A-A axis of the new conceptual composite joint, note the hump design.
References
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