Evaluation of fastener stiffness modelling methods for aircraft structural joints.

An investigation has been made to predict the accurate fastener stiffness for the Aircraft metallic joints that can be used in Finite element models to simulate realistic behaviour. There exist several semi empirical equations like Tate & Rosenfeld (1946), Huth-Schwarmann (1986), Swift (1971) & Grumman (1983) etc. that can be used to calculate the shear and stiffness of fasteners. However the stiffness calculated varies for each of these methods and eventually leading to varying load distribution. In this paper a parametric study has been conducted to identify the most accurate method to identify the fastener stiffness. The relevant shear stiffness calculated adds certain flexibility to fasteners and peak loads tend to distribute across all the fasteners matching with the real scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]