Gm. Swallowe et al., Direct measurement of longitudinal strains and stresses within single lap shear adhesive joints using neutron diffraction, J ADHESION, 70(1-2), 1999, pp. 1-11
The neutron diffraction technique has been used to investigate the longitud
inal stresses in the adherend produced as a result of cure and due to the a
pplication of a tensile load in a single lap shear joint. A comparison has
also been made between the stress distributions in loaded "aged" and "unage
d" joints. The neutron diffraction technique is the only viable method of i
nvestigating these stresses within metal adherends and enables comparisons
between predicted and measured stresses to be made. The results of these ex
periments cast doubt on some of the predictions from finite element modelli
ng of adherend stress levels.