Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Effect of Bolt-Hole Position Errors on the Strength of Bearing-Type Multi- Row Bolted Connection of FRP Composite Members

Abstract

Kader MA *,Kitane Y ,Itoh Y

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of bolt-hole position errors on the strength of bearing-type multi-row bolted connections with a double-lap configuration of fiber reinforced polymer composite members. To simulate errors in positioning bolt-holes in the loading direction of connections, the statistical technique of sampling known as Latin hypercube sampling has been adopted in this study. In the Latin hypercube sampling, the distribution is obtained using the results of goodness of fit tests. It has been seen from the goodness of fit tests that the strength of the two- to fourrow bolted connections with steel cover plates and two-row bolted connection with FRP cover Plates can be modeled by using the normal distribution and the three and four-row bolted connections with FRP cover plates can be modeled by using the Weibull distribution with a significance level of 0.05. The strength of bolted connections is obtained by performing progressive damage analysis of the connections numerically. The statistical analyses show that the bolt-hole positioning errors have significant effect on the strength of the bolted connections, and that the strength can either increase or decrease with a larger probability to decrease. Connections with steel cover plates are more sensitive to bolt-hole position errors than those with FRP cover plates. Ninety five percent non-exceedance strength of the connection with FRP cover plates is about 85% of the connection with bolt positions perfectly aligned, that of the connection with steel cover plates is about 71% of the perfect bolt position case.