The Stress Analysis on Two Different Adhesively Bonded T-Joints via 3D Nonlinear Finite Element Method

Abstract

Adhesively bonded joints are formed in different configurations. T- adhesively bonded joint is one of these configurations and has an important position in industrial applications. The purpose of this study was to numerically study the stress distributions, strength, damage evolution of different T-joints with or without adhesive filling at the curvature of the L-shaped adherends under tensile load via 3D nonlinear finite element method. Here, type-I T-joint is the first model without adhesive filling at the curvature of the L-shaped adherends and type-II T-joint is the second model with adhesive filling at the curvature of the L-shaped adherends. In this study, FM73 and 3M 2214 adhesives and AA2024-T3 aluminum alloy adherends have been used to create two different T-joints numerically. Numerical analysis results have shown that the presence of filler adhesive has a direct influence on joint strength. It has also been observed that ABCD interface is the most critical region in terms of damage occurrence, while is AB and BC lines on the ABCD interface are the most critical lines. In addition, it was observed upon comparing the stress distributions of lines AB and BC that the shear and normal stress values decreased in lines AB and BC of the type-II T-joints. Therefore, it can be put forth that the strength of Type-II T-joints is greater in comparison with the strength of type-I T-joints and the use of a type-II T-joints is more suitable for loads which are close to the fracture load of the T-joints.