Stress-function variational method for interfacial stress analysis of adhesively bonded joints

High interfacial stresses at the free edges of adherends are responsible for the debonding failure of adhesively bonded joints (ABJs). In this paper, a general stress-function variational method is formulated to determinate the interfacial shear and normal (peeling) stresses in ABJs in high accuracy. By extending authors' prior work in stress analysis of bonded joints (Wu and Jenson, 2011), all the planar stress components in the adherends and adhesive layer of an ABJ are expressed in terms of four unknown interfacial stress functions, which are introduced at the upper and lower surfaces of the adhesive layer. A set of governing ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of the four interfacial stress functions is obtained via minimizing the complimentary strain energy of the ABJ, which is further solved by using eigenfunctions. The obtained semi-analytic stress field can satisfy all the traction boundary conditions (BCs) of the ABJ, especially the stress continuity across the bonding lines and the shear-free condition at the ends of adherends and adhesive layer. As an example, the stress field in an adhesively single-sided strap joint is determined by the present method, whose numerical accuracy and reliability are validated by finite element method (FEM) and compared to existing models in the literature. Parameter studies are performed to examine the dependencies of the interfacial stresses of the exemplified ABJ upon the geometries, moduli and temperature change of the adherends and adhesive layer, respectively. The present method is applicable for scaling analysis of joint strength, optimal design of ABJs, etc. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.