Strength prediction of beams with bi-material butt-joints

Failure of bi-material interfaces is studied with the aim to quantify the influence of the induced stress concentrations on the strength of the interfaces. The suggested approach is applied to a specimen configuration where two different materials are butt-joined to form a two-material beam. Strength predictions for different interface bias are made and verified in experiments where a polymer foam material is joined with members of either aluminium or Plexiglas. The predictions are made using a simple point-stress criterion in combination with highly accurate finite element calculations. The point-stress criterion was known from earlier work to give accurate predictions of failure at cracks and notches but had to be slightly modified to become applicable for the studied configurations. Both the strength and the cross-over from local, joint-induced failure to global failure were predicted with reasonable accuracy. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.