Papers by Keyword: Thermoelastic Stress Analysis TSA

Abstract: The marine industry at present employs the use of aluminium extrusions in the construction of decks and superstructures that could be replaced with pultruded glass reinforced plastic (GRP) profiles. The length of the pultruded section is limited and therefore, efficient and economic jointing techniques must be developed that can withstand the loads applied to ship structures. This paper evaluates a novel means of adhesively bonded connection for GRP structures known as a finger joint. Various joint geometries are examined, load displacement behaviour is established and Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) is used to provide the full field stress distribution over the joint. The results of the TSA are compared with the load displacement behaviour. It is shown that by increasing fingertip angle there is a decrease in load carrying capacity, a decrease in shear stress and an increase in stress concentration factor at the finger joint tip.

Abstract: Recent work by the authors has allowed the estimation of crack-tip SIFs by direct curvefitting of a cardioid form to measured isopachics from thermoelastic stress analysis. However, some of the curve-fits indicated that the cardioid form was inappropriate for the base model. One of the possible explanations for this is that the cardioid form is only suitable for an isolated crack-tip stress field. In the experimental data for the previous studies, a crack was placed centrally in a plate and there will therefore have been two (potentially) interacting crack-tips involved. The object of the current paper is to determine numerically, the stress field for such a crack system and to quantify the effect of any interactions on the curve-fitting procedure.