Failure analysis of composite bolted joints under corrosive effects

In this study the effect of water absorption and corrosive sea water on the failure response of an angle ply glass fiber reinforced-epoxy composite oriented as [0/0/90/45]s has been experimentally investigated. Two geometric parameters were chosen for failure response of the bolted?joint composite laminates. Those were the edge distance-to-hole diameter ratio (E/D) and the plate width-to-hole diameter ratio (W/D), which were selected from 1 to 5 and from 2 to 5.The specimens were first tested for unimmersed condition, afterwards another group of specimens were immersed into sea water for 200 days. The experiments were performed using some parameters for the pinned and bolted specimens. The specimens were tested under pre-load moments as, 0 and 3 Nm and 6 Nm. The experiments have not been stopped until a failure occurs on specimens. Interpretations have been made by relying on the bearing strength and displacement diagram.Tables include failure loads with their failure type obtained as a result of the experiments and tables show the comparison failure load for unimmersed and immersed specimens under preload moments are given. The results point out that immersion of the composite specimens into the sea water under preload moments can cause a notable decrease on the failure load.