The investigation of effect of adherend thickness on scarf lap joints

In this paper, the mechanical behavior of the Scarf Lap Joints (SLJs) bonded with adhesive under a tensile load was analyzed. The effects of adherend thickness at the interface stress-strain distributions of SLJs were examined. The stress-strain analyses were performed by Finite Element Method (3D-FEM). The 3D-FEM code was employed with Ansys (Ver.12.0.1). Experimental results were compared with the 3D-FEM results and were found quite reasonable. It was concluded that both experimental and 3D-FEM failure loads were increased with increased adherend thickness. The results indicated that the maximum failure loads were determined at t=8 mm in all joints. The analysis of the SLJs under tensile load showed that the stress and strain concentrations occurred around the edges of the joints.