Joint Strength Optimization of Bi-Adhesively Bonded Composite-Aluminum Sandwich Structure

Abstract

Adhesively bonded joint strength optimization can be obtained through the modification of the overlap length and bi-adhesively bonded technique. In this technique, the joints have two different types of adhesive in the overlap length. In the present paper, the effects of bi-adhesively bondline on the shear stress, peeling stress and von-Mises stress of tongue and groove joints were investigated by using finite element analysis. The joint models were consisted of thick woven E-glass/vinyl ester laminate composite groove geometry together with aluminum 5083 tongue geometry. Finite element analyses were performed for three different tongue lengths (75, 150, 225 mm). The distribution of shear and peeling stresses were investigated on adhesively bonded tongue and groove joints subjected to longitudinal tensile loads. The results indicated that the joint strength can be improved by selecting appropriate design parameter values with bi-adhesive bonded technique.