Static strength prediction of adhesive joints: A review

The use of adhesive joints has gathered increasing interest in recent years due to their advantages over conventional bonding techniques, namely lighter structures and decreased stress concentrations. Consequentially, the strength prediction of adhesive joints has been studied extensively. This review aims to describe and compare the most relevant methods for the strength prediction of adhesive joints. These methods can be divided into analytical and numerical methods. Analytical methods are generally limited to initial design evaluations or to simple joints. Numerical methods are more commonly used, especially when joint design is complex. Between the different numerical methods, Cohesive Zone Models (CZM) are the most popular method to predict the strength of adhesive joints. This approach is able to predict the strength of a wide range of joint designs with minimal errors. However, it requires the determination of cohesive laws that generally change depending on different geometrical parameters of the joints. Advanced numerical techniques, such as the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) or Meshless Methods have been used to study adhesive joints, but their application needs improvements before they can be more extensively used.