A preliminary numerical and experimental investigation on the shear stress distribution on multi-row bolted FRP joints

The first results of a numerical and experimental investigation on the shear forces distribution in a bolted joint made entirely from FRP materials are presented. It is also proposed an experimental equipment for investigating the strains and stresses distributions around the holes of the connection as well as the bearing stresses at the interface between plate and steel bolt. A good agreement between numerical and experimental results allows to use the proposed testing set-up for analysing the bearing failure of several joint configuration with different lamination scheme, geometry and type of load.