A Two-Dimensional Thermal Stress Analysis of Butt Adhesive Joints.

Abstract

Thermal stress distribution in a butt adhesive joint composed of two finite thin plates, in which both end surfaces are kept at higher temperatures and the other surfaces at lower temperatures, is analyzed using the two-dimensional theory of elasticity. In case of the joint with similar adherends kept at the same higher temperature at both free end surfaces of the joint, it is seen that the maximum tensile stress occurs at the edge of the interface between the adherends and the adhesive and compressive stress around the center of the interface. The effects of the ratios of the coefficient of thermal expansion, Young's modulus and the thickness of the adherend to those of the adhesive on the thermal stress distributions are obtained by the numerical calculations. Moreover, in the case of the adherends kept at different temperatures at each free end surface, thermal stress distributions at each interface are obtained numerically. For verification, the thermal strain distribution near the interface was measured using strain gages and also the photoelastic experiment was carried out on the joint where an epoxy resin plate was used as an adhesive. The analytical results were satisfactorily consistent with the experimental ones.