ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS, cilt.23, sa.4, ss.375-387, 2014 (SCI-Expanded)
Weight reduction using composites has gained increasing attention in recent times. In this study, pultruded composite pins (unconfined and confined) were manufactured and tested by using a custom double shear testing fixture. Different configurations were applied for confinement of the composite pins, including weft-knitted fabrics (plain, 1x1 rib, and Milano), woven fabrics and E-glass 130 tex fibers/adhesive cloth. They were externally wrapped and bonded to the unconfined composite pins. In each case, five identical specimens were tested, and shear strength data were analyzed by using two-parameter Weibull statistics. The results showed that the maximum shear strength took its highest value in the unconfined case for both average values of the test results and for 99% reliability under Weibull distribution. The confinement had a negative effect on the average shear strength of the unconfined pins. It was also seen that the 99% reliability values of shear strength were approximately equivalent to the 0.7 average value of the shear strength.