The Static Failure of Adhesively Bonded Metal Laminate Structures: A Cohesive Zone Approach

Adhesively bonded metal laminates are used in aerospace applications to achieve low cost, light weight structures in the aerospace industry. Advanced structural adhesives are used to bond metal laminae to manufacture laminates, and to bond stringers to metal laminate skins. Understanding the failure behaviour of such bonded structures is important in order to provide optimal aircraft designs. In this paper, the static failure behaviour of adhesively bonded metal laminate joints is presented. A cohesive zone model was developed to predict their static failure behaviour. A traction–separation response was used for the adhesive material. Three joint configurations were considered: a doubler in bending, a doubler in tension and a laminated single lap. The backface strains and static failure loads obtained from experimental tests were used to validate the results from finite element modelling. The models were found to be in good agreement with experiments.

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