Riveting is widely used in aircraft manufacturing. The strap butt joint is often used in the aircraft's main bearing area such as the aircraft docking area. The connection quality affects the reliability and safety of the aircraft directly. To study the effect of the rivet position on the connection quality of the strap butt joints, this paper analyzed the distribution of stress around the rivet hole at different positions by the finite element method, and then further analyzed the influence of the different rivet layouts on the connection quality of the strap butt joints by experiments. The static load tensile failure test of the joints was carried out, and the obtained tensile strength and failure mode of the strap butt joints showed that the main static tensile failure form of the single strap butt joint is that the whole rivets is sheared and the connecting sheets are separated. By changing the layout of different rivets, the connection strength can be maximized by reducing the outer row spacing (ORSD) of rivets. The results can be used for reference in the design of the riveting structure of aircraft panels.
Keywords: finite element simulation; nail load distribution; rivet irregular layout; single strap butt joints.