INFLUENCE OF JOINT GEOMETRY AND LOAD REGIMES ON SANDWICH TEE JOINT BEHAVIOR

Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) sandwich construction incorporating PVC foam cores is becoming an increasingly used structural topology in th e case of ships, boats and offshore structures. A critical part in suc h structures is the connection between two orthogonal plate assemblies such as bulkheads and shell plating. This is usually in the form of a laminated tee joint. The purpose of this paper is to characterise the behaviour of such connections in terms of key stress components in th e various constituent elements of the tee. This is done in context of various joint geometries and loading regimes. It has been shown that t he collated results can be presented in the form of regression equatio ns which are functions of geometry and which can then be used for desi gn synthesis purposes.