Fatigue Failure of Composite Bolted Joints

Abstract

The effects of a number of parameters on the fatigue characteristics of a bolted graphite/epoxy composite laminate are investigated. In particular, tests were per formed in order to study the influence of three independent parameters; applied stress level, orientation of the outer layer reinforcing filaments, and the bolt torque level on the fatigue life of a graphite/epoxy composite. Analysis of variance and censoring techniques were used to analyze the experimentally obtained data. Fatigue life data was determined to be adequately characterized by using a log-normal distribution.