Stress concentration analysis for countersunk rivet holes in orthotropic plates

This research investigates the in-plane stress concentration factor (SCF) in countersunk rivet holes in orthotropic laminated plates under uniaxial tension load. Finite element analysis (FEA) using ANSYS software is used to build and mesh the geometry of a plate containing a countersunk hole, define the boundary and loading conditions, run the analysis and obtain the SCF results. The effect of several geometric and material parameters such as plate thickness, straight-shank radius, countersunk angle, countersunk depth, plate width, and the laminate ply angles on the SCF is also investigated. Finally, multi parameter fit and factorial analyses are applied to establish the relationships between the SCF and the various geometric and material parameters, and to formulate a general equation for the SCF. Based on the results, it is found that the values of the SCF obtained by means of the formulated equation are within 7% of the finite element (FE) results for 96% of the runs and that the maximum overall error is less than 14%.

► 3-D FE model was built to study the stress concentration around countersunk holes in orthotropic plates.
► Factorial analysis has determined the effective geometric and material parameters of the SCF.
► A general equation of the SCF around countersunk holes in orthotropic plates was formulated and tested.
► The new equation has shown high accuracy compared to the FE results.