Failure Mode and Strength of Unidirectional Composite Single Lap Bonded Joints II. Failure Prediction

A methodology is presented for the failure prediction of composite single-lap bonded joints considering both of composite adherend failure and bondline failure. An elastic-perfectly plastic model of adhesive and a delamination failure criterion are used in the methodology. The failure predictions have been performed using finite element method and the proposed methodology. The failure prediction results such as failure mode and strength have very good agreements with the test results of joint specimens with various bonding methods and parameters. The influence of variations in the effective strength (that is, adhesion performance) and plastic behavior of adhesive on the failure characteristics of composite bonded Joints are investigated numerically. The numerical results show that optimal joint strength is archived when adhesive and delamination failure occur in the same time.