If you are developing a structural analysis of a structural joint, you need to check all possible failure modes of this

joint. But what type of analysis must I perform? What type of failure will appears in my joint? Structural joints are made by structural splices or structural doublers. These two joint types: doublers and splices are very different regarding design philosophies and load applications, check future posts to understand the difference. The joints/connections are made by fasteners between the two structural elements. This type of joint that you can find in every structure of the aircraft can fails by the following failure modes:

Tension failure of the plates, the net section of the parts/plates must resist to the load applied to the joint. You must check by calculation the stress applied to the plates and the margin of safety regarding the net section of the members.

Tension cleavage failure of plates, if we have a double load application applied in the two direction of the plate. The sum of the two loadings gives us the maximum load applied to the rivet and net section of the plate. We must check if the tension stress applied as adequate margin of safety in the joint.

Shear-out failure, if the hole of the first fastener line is too close to the border of the plate, failure by shear out of the plate will occur, you must always check if this can occur. Do not install fasteners to close to the border. To avoid this type of failure obey to the general installation rule that the rivet line must be at 2D (two times the rivet diameter) minimum. If you obey this rule this mode of failure will be avoided.

Bearing failure, this is the typical critical failure mode of the joint. When you design the joint try to design to this type of failure, this will give you the safety that you need. To better understand the failures visit future post regarding the splice or doubler analysis.

Fastener shear, this is other typical failure mode of the joint. The shear resistance of the fastener selected is not adequate to use. The application of load will cut the fastener body, causing the failure of the joint.

Fastener tension, if the joint is tension critical the tension failure of the bolt can occur. Then you must check the margin of safety of the tension applied to the bolt. Be careful, the bolt margin of safety must be the result of the combined load between tension and shear for bolt applications.

Fastener pull-through, in tension application mainly in the countersunk fasteners, the fastener head cannot have the adequate strength to avoid the pull-through failure. This type of failure is only applicable to tension applications. This can only be checked by structural tests of the fastener/plate assembly. Use test tables to check that.

All this type of failure modes can occur in our joint. You must check all this type of failure modes and design for the critical one. Generally the net section, fastener shear, fastener tension and bearing failure are the critical modes. You must make the analysis for these four modes of failure and find the margin of safety or reserve factor applied. The allowable of the fasteners and plates must be compared with the applicable load in the joint.

From:

http://aeroteaching.blogspot.in/2012/04/aircraft-damage-structuraljoint.html