The strength of bolted joints in glass fibre/epoxy laminates

Abstract The results obtained from an experimental study on glass fibre-reinforced epoxy laminates are described. Single-hole bolted joints were tested in a variety of lay-ups with two resin systems — Fothergill Code 69 and Ciba-Geigy 913. A small number of tests carried out on carbon fibre laminates compared closely with data from other workers. The general behaviour of the two fibre systems was found to be similar, the optimum lay-ups for bearing strength being only slightly different. The failure modes seemed to be more dependent on the lay-up than the fibre/resin combination, although more delaminations were seen with the glass fibre/epoxy laminates which also showed stronger interaction between modes.