Effects of Plastic Properties of Adherends on the Stress and Strength of Adhesive Joints

Abstract

Abstract Effects of the plastic properties of adherends, such as yield stress, post-yield slop, ultimate stress, on the stress and strain distributions in adhesive and the strength of single-lap adhesive joints subjected to external tensile loads are examined by elasto-plastic finite element analysis. It is found that the gradient of stresses in the vicinity of the edge of adhesive interface reduces, and the joint strength increases as the yield stress of adherends increases in the situation plastic deformation of the adherends takes place. However, the yield stress will not affect the joint strength in the case where the joint strength is so small that the adherends are still in elastic state when the rupture takes place from the adhesive interfaces. The stress gradient in the vicinity of the edge of the adhesive interface decreases and the joint strength increases as the post-yield slope of the adherends increases when the joint is ruptured due to the plastic hardening of the adherends. In general, the ultimate stress of the adherends will not affect the joint strength for metal/epoxy/metal joints.