Wrapped Composite Joints for Circular Hollow Section Structures

Abstract

An innovative bonding joining technology for truss/lattice circular hollow section (CHS) supporting structures is being developed as replacement for welded joints. Wrapped Composite Joint uses bonding instead of welding to transfer the joint forces and bending moments between the chord and brace CHS members through a dedicated fibre reinforced polymer composite wrap. It is aimed to replace all welds in different types of joints such as X, K, KK and splice joints in fatigue and/or corrosion dominated designs of truss/lattice structures such as offshore wind jackets and floaters, fish farms, truss bridges, etc. Composite material is known for good fatigue performance from aerospace industry and wind turbine blades. Number of joint experiments showed superior fatigue performance of the wrapped composite joints compared to welded CHS joints. This new concept allows for huge reduction of thickness of CHS members resulting in significant truss/lattice structure weight reduction and increase of fatigue lifetime. This paper presents state of development and outlook of the wrapped composite joint technology in terms of design, production and joint performance for ultimate limit state, fatigue and influence of the environment. Framework of prediction methods and design principles based on ongoing experimental and numerical research will be presented. The scope includes material, interface, and joint level experiments from small to full scale (100‐600 mm member diameter) and finite element modeling of complex steel‐composite bonded joints. Advantage of using state‐of‐the‐art monitoring techniques such as Digital Image Correlation, Fibre Optics Strain Measurement and 3D scanning is highlighted