The Effect of Defence Hole System on the Failure Load and Bearing Strength of GFRP Bolted Joint

The introduction of an auxiliary holes (or defence hole system) near the main hole has provided several benefits in redistributing the stress flows, hence increasing the failure load. This paper presents the experimental study on the effect of the defence hole system (DHS) on the failure load and bearing strength of the glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite bolted joint. A series of bearing tests have been carried out on a double lap bolted joint for a wide range of geometric parameters for the cases of without and with the DHS. It was found that adding the auxiliary hole near the bolt-hole has contributed in improving the failure load up to 34.81% increment, with most of the laminates with the defence hole system have failed at higher failure loads.