Influence of bolt configuration and TiO2/ZnS fillers content on the strength of composites fasteners

• The strength of the bolted and hybrid fasteners made up of GFRP fillers has been evaluated.
• The effect of number of bolts on the strength aspect has been evaluated.
• Hybrid fasteners have shown high sustainability to failure than bolted fasteners.
• The strength of the composites increases with raise in TiO2 and ZnS fillers content.

In the present work, an attempt has been made to investigate the strength of bolted fasteners and hybrid fasteners under tensile loading for unfilled, TiO2 and ZnS filled Glass Fabric Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites (GFRP). Bolt configurations were chosen as 2, 3 and 4, in order to analyze the effect of number of bolts on the strength aspect. For filled GFRP composites, the volume fractions in the matrix were chosen as 1%, 2% and 3%. The result obtained shows that, the static tensile strength of the GFRP composites increases with increase in number of bolts. Specimens with 4 bolt configurations have shown significantly more absorption of load before failure of the joint. Hybrid fasteners are more sustainable to failure than bolted fasteners. Also it is noticed that, the strength of the composites increases with raise in TiO2 and ZnS fillers content up to 2 vol.%. In comparison with TiO2 and ZnS filled composites, it was found that ZnS filled composites bears more load.