Failure Analysis of Double Pin- Loaded Holes in Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composite Laminates

Abstract

The effect of geometric parameters on the bearing strength for double pin joints prepared from glass fibre reinforced polymer composites was studied experimentally and numerically. The types of configurations i.e. serial and parallel, were studied in the present work. In case of serial pin joint laminates, the parameters varied were the distance from the free edge of the specimen to the diameter of the nearest hole (E/D) ratio, width of the specimen to the diameter of the hole (W/D) ratio, and the distance between the two holes to the diameter of the hole (P/D) ratio. The parameters varied in case of parallel pin joint laminates were the distance from the transverse free edge of the specimen to the diameter of the hole (E/D) ratio, the distance from the longitudinal free edge of the specimen to the diameter of the nearer hole (K/D) ratio, and the distance between the two holes to the hole diameter (P/D) ratio. Taguchi method has been applied to reduce the experimentation time and cost. The results were validated numerically using progressive damage method and the characteristic curve method. Tsai – Wu failure criteria was used along with the numerical method for the failure prediction. The results suggested that the serial pin joint laminate with the configuration of E/D= 4, W/D= 4 and P/D= 5 and the parallel pin joint laminates with the configuration of E/D= 4, W/D= 3 and P/D= 5 have given the best bearing strength. The ANOVA technique has suggested that E/D ratio is the most significant factor for the bearing strength of the double pin joints.