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.