A numerical and experimental study of woven composite pin-joints

A numerical and experimental study was carried out to determine the stiffness and the bearing strength of bolted woven composite joints. The main objective was to investigate the possibility of predicting the properties of the joint from the properties of the material measured with standard tests. A refined finite element model was developed in which the nonlinearities due to both the material and the contact angle between the pin and the hole were taken into account. Particular attention was paid to account for the influence of the clearance which has been shown to be very significant. In conclusion, good agree ment between experimental results and numerical predictions has been obtained.