Finite Element Modeling Techniques for Mechanically Fastened Joints in Aerospace Structures: A Review

Abstract

Mechanically fastened joints remain essential in aerospace structures because they provide reliable, inspectable, and certification-mature load paths. Accurate prediction of fastener load transfer and local stress distribution is fundamental to structural sizing, fatigue and damage-tolerance assessment, and substantiation. This critical narrative review examines finite-element modelling techniques for mechanically fastened aerospace joints, beginning with bearing-bypass load transfer and classical flexibility-based methods and progressing through global, refined connector-based, and detailed three-dimensional contact models. Approaches for representing fastener flexibility, secondary bending, contact, friction, preload, interference, material nonlinearity, and composite damage are compared, together with strategies for calibrating simplified models against experiments or higher-fidelity analyses. Recent connector enhancement, surrogate, and multifidelity approaches are considered as methods for extending local joint fidelity to larger structural models. Particular attention is given to the limitations of each modelling level, the need to calibrate reduced-order representations within their intended domain, and the relationship between model fidelity, computational cost, and the structural question being addressed. The review supports a building-block approach in which analytical and global models enable efficient load screening, refined models resolve load redistribution at practical cost, and detailed nonlinear analyses provide local reference solutions for critical or unfamiliar configurations.