Failure Analysis of Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joints Embedded with Metal Component as Part of Fillet

Abstract

In order to understand the effects of the metal components embedded in adhesive fillets on the strength of adhesively bonded single lap joint, the failed surfaces were studied with diagrams of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer. The stress distribution along the length of the bondline of single lap steel joints was also studied with an elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) model to understand its effect in the view of mechanics. The SEM images and the FT-IR spectra diagrams revealed that the failure in the interface was primarily mixture mode with fillets and they also presented the interface strength being higher and there were more polar links formed in the adhesive fillets with metal components. The result obtained from the numerical modeling is in compliance with it from experiment that the stress distributed in lap zone of the joint is gentler when a couple of steel wires embedded in fillet.