A numerical analysis of bolt clamping effect on the fatigue behavior of double shear Glare lap joints

In this paper, the effect of bolt torque tightening has been investigated numerically on the fatigue behavior of GLARE in double shear lap configuration. To do so, employing a finite element method package, in the first step, bolt clamping a double shear lap joint was simulated and then, in the second step, tensile remote stress was applied to find the stress and strain distribution around the hole (the stress concentration region). The test set up was selected according to the available experimental fatigue test results of GLARE۳-۵/۴-۰.۴ specimens with applied torques of ۰ (finger tightened), ۲, and ۴ Nm at different cyclic longitudinal load ranges. The attained results showed that applying and increasing the clamping force affect the stress and strain distribution and decreases them around the hole. Thus, the longer fatigue lives of experimental tests are affirmed by numerical results. The obtained results can provide insights in designing bolted GLARE joints with superior fatigue in-service performance.