Reinforcement of welded metal tubes joints using polymeric laminated composites

In this study, the idea of adhesive composite joints in order to reinforcement of welded metal tubes joints is presented. According to this method, first welding finite element model was created in ABAQUS software and then cohesive and GFRP elements were added to the model. Adhesive thickness and ply numbers have been studied due to that geometrical parameters such as tube diameter, reinforcement length and material properties, are assumed constant in this study. By this method the effects of parameters on ultimate pure bending load have been investigated separately. The results show when the welded joint is reinforced using composite laminate its bending strength increases importantly in comparison with that the weld is used lonely. Numerical results revealed that by increasing the thickness of the adhesive element, the adhesive failure mode will happen. Finally, an idea has been proposed in order to achieve ultimate bending strength.