ANALYZING STRUCTURAL ADHESIVE JOINTS FOR FAILURE

This paper addresses the problem of adhesive joint design by linking various joint analyses with potential criteria of joint failure in order to give a facility for joint strength prediction that is accessible to a design engineer. The paper is thus split into two sections, the first outlining various approaches to joint analysis, some established and others completely new, white the second part uses these techniques to address the problem of actual joint failure. The main part of the analysis section is devoted to a summary of a design analysis approach that increases in complexity from linear elastic design formulae to a full adhesive-adherend non-linear analysis. This is compared with the finite element method which is viewed as a research rather than design tool. In the joint failure section all of the approaches to joint analysis have been used to predict the strength of a wide range of adhesive joints. The application of fracture mechanics to the singularities found at joint bimaterial interfaces has also been discussed. As a result of this work relevant failure criteria are proposed. © 1990.