A two-dimensional stress analysis and strength of single-lap adhesive joints of dissimilar adherends subjected to external bending moments

The stress distributions of single-lap adhesive joints of dissimilar adhere nds subjected to external bending moments are analyzed as a three-body cont act problem by using a two-dimensional theory of elasticity (plane strain). In the analysis, dissimilar adherends and an adhesive are replaced by fini te strips. In the numerical calculations, the effects of the ratio of Young 's moduli of adherends, the adherend thickness ratio and the adherend lengt h ratio between dissimilar adherends on the stress distributions at the int erfaces are examined. The results show that the stress singularity occurs a t the ends of the interfaces, and its intensity is greater at the interface of the adherend with smaller Young's modulus. It is also noted that the si ngular stress is greater at the interface of the thinner adherend. It is fo und that the effect of the adherend length ratio on the stress singularity at the interfaces is very small. Joint strength is predicted by using the i nterface stress and it was measured by experiments. From the analysis and t he experiments, it is found that the joint strength increases as Young's mo dulus of adherends and the adherend thickness increase while the effect of the adherend lengths on the joint strength is small. For verification of th e analysis, a finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out. A fairly good a greement of the interface stress distribution is seen between the analytica l and the FEA results.