Adhesive stresses in axially-loaded tubular bonded joints – Part I: Critical review and finite element assessment of published models

Adhesive bonding of overlapping coaxial tubes of either conventional or composite materials is a joining solution often encountered in engineering structures. This paper reviews the underlying assumptions and assesses the accuracy of five published theoretical models for the adhesive stresses produced by axial loading of the tubular joint. The models scrutinized are those by Lubkin and Reissner (1956) [1], Shi and Cheng (1993) [3], Nayeb-Hashemi et al. (1997) [4], Pugno and Carpinteri (2003) [5] and Nemeş et al. (2006) [6]. Comparison of the model results with the outcome of ad-hoc finite element analyses on five joint configurations shows that: (1) all models predict correctly the shear stresses; (2) only Lubkin and Reissner's model gives correct peel stress distributions; and (3) the axial and the hoop stresses are close to each other and are about one half of the peel stresses. The usefulness of an explicit closed-form solution, not provided by Lubkin and Reissner's theory, is recognized.