Bridge effects of Z-pin on damage evolution of Z-pin reinforced composite T-joint: Experiment and simulation

In order to improve the strength of composite T joint, z-pin is often used to reinforce it and prevent delamination growing. This paper designed un-pinned and z-pinned samples with the same size; tensile pull-out testing was performed to study bridge effect of z-pin and damage evolution of these composite T joints. Finite element models were built to simulate the failure process and bridge effect of z-pin. It is shown that the ultimate load and displacement of z-pinned composite T joints are 47.63% and 2.07 times higher than that of un-pinned joints; toughness of T joints is not improved by z-pin；simplified pin model can be used to simulate bridge effect of z-pin on damage evolution of composite T joint；z-pin can prevent delamination growing.