Strength assessment of adhesive-bonded joints

This paper deals with non-linear analyses of adhesively bonded joints under tensile lap shear loading. 3D FEM models are taken into account. The effect of the number of elements through the adhesive layer thickness is considered. Tensile true stress–true strain curves are used as models of the adherend and adhesive materials. The single lap joints are tested to validated the numerical analyses.Comparison between one-step and two-step loading is considered. In the two-step loading, a uniform displacement in the transversal direction in the one grip region is applied, followed by a tensile loading. The uniaxial load is applied gradually until the joint fails due to large plastic deformation.Non-linear analyses and laboratory tests were performed for two different adhesive thickness (0.2 and 0.03 mm). The results of laboratory tests are complied with the results of finite element simulations. The authors offer method which will be used to modelling the steel-composite bonded structure subjected to multiaxial loads.