Paper number 162

HIGH STRENGTH RIGHT ANGLE COMPOSITE JOINTS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

Gerard M Van Erp

Fibre Composites Design and Development (FCDD),
University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia,

Summary

This paper presents initial results of an ongoing research project that is concerned with the development of strong right angle composite joints for civil engineering applications. Experimental, analytical and numerical results for four different types of monocoque right angle joints loaded in pure bending will be presented. It will be shown that a significant increase in load carrying capacity can be obtained through small changes to the inside corner of the joints. The test results also demonstrate that there is reasonable correlation between the failure mode of the joints and the location and severity of the stress concentrations predicted by the FE method.

Keywords

joining, civil application, testing, structures.