Failure Mechanism and Strength Prediction Model of T-Joint of Composite Sandwich Structure

Composite sandwich structures are widely used in many fields. T-joint plays a significant role in the composite sandwich structural connection. In this paper, a type of adhesive T-joint was manufactured and tested under bending and shearing load. According to the experiment, the finite element model was established to reveal the failure process. A strength prediction model was proposed based on the simulation. The results showed that the T-joint’s lower connector and the web’s lower face panel controlled its maximum load-bearing capacity, and the failure mode is the fiber compressive damage. The predicted ultimate bearing capacity of the T-joint showed a good agreement with the simulation, and the maximum relative error was less than 3%.