Abstract: A progressive damage method for predicting the staticstrength and damage failure of mechanically fastened joints infibre-reinforced plastics is established in the paper based on the classicallaminate theory, the three-dimensional Hashin-type failure criteria , thefailure criteria of the structure and material property degradation rulesrelated to the correlation among four basic damage mechanisms. Damageaccumulation in composite bolted joints was investigated and compared withthe X-radiographs of fractured specimens under multistep loading. Numericalresults have been demonstrated that the method established in the paper iscapable of predicting the ultimate tensile strength and the failure mode ofjoints and can be applied to simulate the whole process of failureinitiation, propagation and catastrophic failure of the structure. We findan excellent agreement between the results from the present scheme and theexperimental data.