The bearing strength and failure behavior of bolted e-glass/epoxy composite joints

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the failure strength of a pinned-joint E-glass/epoxy composite plate. The main objective was to examine the influence of the preload moment, the edge distance to the pin diameter ratio, and the specimen width to pin diameter ratio on the strength. The load-carrying capacity of the pin-loaded hole could be changed by varying the specimen geometry and the preload moment. Guidelines for effective geometrical configurations and the preload moment for the mechanically pin-connected E-glass/epoxy composite plate were specified based on the ultimate bearing strength. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc