Adhesive overlap joints

Adhesive bonding of joints is the modern technology for fastening metal-to-metal. Traditionally, adhesives have been used in the aerospace, automotive and many other industries that require metal-to-metal bonding. However, more recently there has been a considerable increase in the use of adhesives in the civil engineering field. Adhesive joints have been analysed, in past years, by various people using closed form algebraic techniques of varying complexities. Some of the factors that affect the adhesive bonded joint are: adhesive thickness, properties of adhesives and adherends, types of joints and temperature. The finite element methods which have been used more recently have allowed more realistic material properties and joint geometries to be analysed. In this research an epoxy resin adhesive is used to join galvanized steel to form double lap joints. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of adhesive thickness, types of joints, adherend thickness and overlap length. These factors are investigated by both experimental and computer analyses. The effects of the adhesive fillet at the end of the joint are also be examined.