THE INFLUENCE OF GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ADHESIVE ON STRESS ANALYSIS IN ADHESIVELY BONDED ALUMINUM SINGLE LAP JOINT

Summary The aim of this study was to investigate adhesively bonded joints, and the influence of geometric parameters and mechanical properties of the adhesive in single lap aluminum structures under tensile load. A finite element model has been constructed in the ANSYS FE package and the effects of adhesive thickness, rigidity, strength and geometry have been studied in order to adjust peel stress. Various paths have been defined and obtained along the length of the adhesive and aluminum joint overlap. The results indicate that by increasing the adhesive thickness, the stress concentration decreases in the areas prone to yielding if a flexible adhesive is used instead of a rigid one, and effective stresses along the overlap length are also reduced. In addition, for a given tensile force, three different adhesive area geometries are defined. Considering the variation of peel and shear stress along the corners, the amount of adhesive used according to the introduced geometries is saved without sacrificing joint strength.