Experimental and analytical investigation of fatigue and fracture behaviors for scarfed lap riveted joints with different lap angle

Fastener load-transferred experiments and fatigue tests of the scarfed lap riveted joints with different lap angle were carried out. The fracture surfaces were observed by optical microscope (OM) in this paper. Both experimental and computational studies were described and compared when possible. Based on the qualitative finite element analysis (FEA), the multi-axial fatigue life of the scarfed lap riveted joints has been predicted by Smith–Watson–Topper (SWT) method and Wang–Brown (WB) method respectively. Both of the test results and predicted results show that fatigue life of scarfed lap riveted joints is remarkably increased after introducing lap angle into the faying surface. 8 mm-thick specimens with the lap angle of 1.68 °C exhibit the best fatigue performance, and 20 mm-thick with the lap angle of 3.37 °C do in the present study. Compared with the result of WB theory, the result of SWT theory is more conservative and reliable. For structures’ reliability designs, SWT theory and WB theory are all fallibility.