Balanced and unbalanced patching of cracked lap joints using weighted adhesive plate element

Abstract

First order shear deformation theory is applied to analyze the behavior of one-side (unbalanced) and two-side (balanced) patched lap joints containing initial through cracks. The joints are made of adherends bonded together by adhesives. An adhesive interface plate element is introduced; it consists of an adhesive layer weighted by influence of the adherend. The thin adhesive layer is assumed to behave elastically and modelled as a simple tension-shear spring. The mathematical model contains layers of adherend and weighted adhesive layer. Finite elements are employed to model the adherend with an 8-node isoparametric plate element and interface layer with a 16-node plate element. Numerical results are obtained for one-side and two-side patches the width of which could be narrower or wider than the crack length. The former leads to bulging and possible peeling while the latter provides better bonding. Stresses and crack-tip stress intensity factors are calculated for different patch thickness. Effectiveness of the weighted adhesive layer model is exhibited by comparing the present results with those found in previous work where the adhesive is modelled as an individual layer.