Keywords: pultruded profiles, explicit solver, Hashin damage criteria, bolted connections, shear-out, pin-bearing.

A finite element model was developed in ABAQUS to investigate the nonlinear behaviour and progressive damage of single-bolted double-lap connections in Glass Pultruded Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (PFRP) profiles. The model uses dynamic explicit solver and incorporates the Hashin damage criteria for damage initiation and fracture energy-based formulations for damage evolution and propagation. Nominal mechanical parameters were assumed for the preliminary prediction of the performances of connections under longitudinal tensile loading. The bolt end distance was varied from 2 to 6 times the bolt diameter, to check the possible influence on the capacity and failure modes. According to the same setup, experimental tests were then carried out to obtain empirical evidence and assess the validity of the numerical predictions. The comparison of the results shows good consistency between the numerical and experimental load-displacement capacity of the connections, with good replication of stiffness, peak load, and damage progression in the post-peak stage, till collapse. The model was proved capable to successfully capture key failure modes, namely the shear out and pin bearing, as well as their transition with increasing end distance. The proposed modelling approach thus offers a reliable strategy for predicting the tensile behaviour of PFRP bolted connections and can be extended to multi-bolted configurations without the need for extensive, systemic experimental testing.

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