Paper number 763

NUMERICAL MODELLING OF COMPOSITE PIN-JOINTS AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

Fabrice PIERRON^* François CERISIER^* and Michel GRÉDIAC^**

*SMS/ Département Mécanique et Matériaux, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne
158, cours Fauriel, 42023 Saint-Étienne Cedex 2, France
**LERMES, Université Blaise Pascal, 24, avenue des Landais, 63174 Aubière Cedex, France

Summary

A numerical and experimental study was carried out to determine the stiffness and the bearing strength of bolted woven composite joints. The main objective was to investigate the possibility of predicting the properties of the joint from the properties of the material measured with standard tests. A refined finite element model was developed in which the nonlinearities due to both the material and the contact angle between the pin and the hole were taken into account. Particular attention was paid to account for the influence of the clearance which has been shown to be very significant. In conclusion, good agreement between experimental results and numerical predictions has been obtained.

Keywords

pin-joints, woven composites, finite element modelling, non-linear modelling, experimental validation, design of composite joints.