OPTIMIZATION OF LAMINATED FRP COMPOSITE–ADHESIVELY BONDED TUBULAR T-JOINT UNDER COMPRESSIVE LOADING

Tubular structures for their inherent architectural and structural advantages find tremendous applications in various fields such as truss structures in bridges and industrial buildings, jackets in offshore oil platforms, dragline cluster joints, etc. Laminated Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite tubes are replacing their metallic counterparts in several fields of engineering due to their excellent corrosion resistance, durability, and high strength to weight ratio. Designing of laminated FRP composite made branching tubular joint structures in orthogonal media is quite complex in nature due to mismatch of material properties and continuous change in non-planar geometry along the joint interface. These joints may fail due to structural discontinuity induced stress concentration at the vicinity of the joint. Also, structural performance is limited due to the characteristics of the laminated composite adherends and low strengths at the bi-material interface. Hence, a detailed stress analysis and failure analyses along the critical regions have been essential to ensure the minimum stress concentration and reduce the chances of failure at the joint region.The present analysis, adhesive triangular fillet has been added along the joint interface to improve the joint strength of tubular joints. The joint parameters for the FRP laminated composite made bonded tubular joints are optimized by using Finite Element Method (FEM), stress distribution analysis and deflection along the joint region to ensure minimum chances of failure.