Numerical Study on Adhesively Bonded Stepped Joints.

Abstract

To investigate the behavior of different types of lap joints as material and geometric properties are varied under tensile loading, an analytically verified finite element parametric study was conducted on both ideally and adhesively bonded different types lap joints, measuring the changes in stress value at points of critical stress concentrations. Peel stresses increasing at the edges of the overlap area of the adhesively bonded single lap joints subjected to static tensile loading have an intense effect on the damage of the joint. In order to interrelate the finite element analysis with real-world lap joint behavior, digital image correlation was used to record the deformation of lap joint specimens under a tensile load. In this study, mechanical properties of the single lap joint (SLJ), one step lap joint (OSLJ) and three step lap joints (TSLJ) subjected to tensile loading were examined numerically by keeping the bonding area same for all six samples examined. As a result, it was observed that one-step lap geometry reduces the stress concentration increasing at the edges of the overlap area while the highest decrease occurred in the three-step lap geometry