An Analytical Study of a Composite Dovetail Joint

Abstract

In this paper a simple analytical model for determining the elastic fields in a so called dovetail joint is developed. The model is restricted to joints having a small wedge angle. With some simplifying assumptions regarding for example the mechanical behaviour of the wedge material, the elastic fields can be expressed in terms of convergent polynomial series. Two situations in which closed form solutions exists are identified: (a)when the lateral contraction of the laminates can be ignored, the laminate displacement is obtained in closed form in terms of Bessel functions, whereas (b): when the wedge can be considered to be rigid, it is obtained in terms of exponential functions. Finally, some numerical examples regarding contact pressure, stress distribution and stiffness are presented.