Parametric study of stress concentration of single and double bolted lap joints between adhesive bonded aluminum laminates

Abstract

In the distant past, adhesive materials were considered to be a kind of mere glue. But today adhesive materials are used extensively in the field of manufacturing because of the good properties they exhibit. Adhesive bonded aluminum laminates are well known materials that belong to the family of metal laminates. Adhesive bonded aluminum laminates are made by joining several thin sheets of aluminum. These sheets are bonded by an adhesive material in between. The adhesive bonded aluminum laminates when compared to the monolithic aluminum plates, exhibit very good mechanical and chemical properties. They also exhibit some useful properties such as weight reduction, capability of withstanding high loads, thermal resistance, etc. Because of this, they are widely used in aerospace, marine and automobile fields, particularly in manufacturing of doublers plates. Optimizing the design of structural joint will definitely improve the load carrying capability of the structural joint. Identifying the significant factors that affect the structural joint is one way to avoid failure at the joints. The main purpose of this study is to predict the stress concentration around the hole in single and double lap joints of adhesive bonded aluminum laminate. A three dimensional finite element model is developed in ABAQUS to know the effect of stress concentration and is validated by comparing the results of the finite element model with the results obtained from theoretical closed form solution. The present study shows the relationship between the stress concentration around the hole and the Young‟s modulus of the adhesive material, Radius of the fastener holes, Distance between the fastener holes, position of the adhesive layer and number of the adhesive layers. The results obtained from this parametric study are analyzed in a design of experiments software to determine the significance of each parameter.