Investigation on “Replacing Bolts with Rivets” in Composite Structures

Bolt joints are widely used in the connection of composite material structures, but have disadvantages such as heavy weight, high cost, and low installation efficiency. In contrast, rivet joints are simple and cost-effective, and can thus be adopted to reduce the weight of the composite structures. To further assess the feasibility of “replacing bolts with rivets” in composite structures, this paper compares the mechanical properties and failure forms of pure rivet (without washer), rivet with washer, and high-lock bolt joints through the quasi-static tensile shear tests. The results show that, under the quasi-static tensile shear loads, the ultimate tensile shear strength of the washer and rivet joint is higher than that of the high-lock bolt joint. Their load-bearing capability per unit mass is similar, but the energy absorption per unit mass of the high-lock bolt joint is much higher. Overall, the washer and rivet joint exhibits excellent tensile shear performance, and the replacing bolts with rivets is feasible in terms of load-bearing capacity and energy absorption.