Abstract
The deformation and strengeth of single lap joints of glass cloth/vinylester resin laminated plates under tensile-shear load were investigated analytically and experimentally. The strain distributions of the joints were analyzed by the finite element method. In the analysis, several different boundary conditions were applied to the tensile shear loading condition. The analyzed strain distributions for those boundary conditions were compared with the experimental results, and the boundary condition corresponding to the experimental loading state was determined.
The strength of the joints was evaluated by applying the strength law established for each part under the combined stress state to the analyzed stress distributions in the adhesive layer, adherend and their interfaces. The evaluated results were compared with the experimentally determined joint strength. The results obtained are as follows.
(1) The deformed state of the single lap joints can be represented by using the finite element strain analysis.
(2) The strength of the joints increased as the overlap length increased under constant adherend thickness, but the strength did not always increase with the increase of adherend thickness under constant overlap length.
(3) The evaluated strength of the joints showed good agreement with the experimentally determined strength for the relatively thin adherend.
