Paper number 1225

FAILURE MODES IN COMPOSITE JOINTS A FINITE ELEMENT STUDY

Efstathios E. Theotokoglou

Department of Engineering Science, Section of Mechanics
The National Technical University of Athens
GR-157 73 Athens, Greece

Summary

The aim of this paper is to improve the efficiency of T-Joints placed in high speed marine vessels. The behaviour of such joints is very complex since it involves several types of materials such as GRP, foam material as well as glue filler. The material and geometry discontinuities cause stress concentrations in T-joints which can initiate interlaminar or fatigue cracks. A crack propagating between the connected laminate and the attachment lap has been evaluated using the crack flank displacement method in conjunction with the finite element method. Numerical results are presented for the stress intensity factors in the case of T-joints subjected to lateral loads.

Keywords

fibre reinforced plastic, T-joints, sandwich material, GRP-laminates, interface crack, finite element analysis, stress intensity factors.