A Numerical Investigation about the Effects of the Riveting Operation on the Strength of Joints

A new interest has been increasingly directed in recent years to study the behaviour of joints provided with various kinds of fasteners and the mechanism of load transfer; profiting of the present capabilities of computing systems and analysis codes, which appear such as to deal with models built with more than one million elements, thanks to new numerical techniques which can solve huge systems of equations. However, the main interest has been limited to the case of bolted joints, for which several models are now available, while a few results are known for the case of riveted joints, where more complex mechanisms are involved. In the present paper a full set of analyses has been reported, with reference to both normal and blind rivets, where the manufacturing operation has been simulated through Ls-Dyna to evaluate the stress and strain states induced into the jointed sheets, varying the dimensional and riveting load characteristics of the joint. A subsequent investigation is presented, which aims to evaluate the effects of the compressed zone over the behaviour of an approaching crack.