GFRP reinforced high performance glass-bolted joints: Development of a simplified finite element-based method for analysis

This paper presents the development of finite element (FE)-based computational models that can be used for predicting the failure load of GFRP-reinforced annealed and heat-strengthened glass-bolted joints. Stress analysis of a single-bolt, single-glass-piece case was first carried out in order to develop the computational models and to establish an appropriate failure criterion for the GFRP-reinforced glass-bolted joints. The computational models were then calibrated against the experimental results reported in a previous experimental study involving reference and reinforced double-lap tension joint test specimens. The paper shows that the failure of both reference and reinforced glass-bolted joints can be predicted using the maximum principal-tensile-stress-based failure of glass. The results also confirm that the use of adhesively bonded GFRP reinforcement has potential to increase the load capacity of the reinforced glass-bolted joints compared to the reference glass-bolted joints.