The investigation of the effect of angle on the failure load and strength of scarf lap joints

In this study, the effect of scarf angle on tensile strength of an epoxy adhesive was investigated both experimentally and numerically. Tensile tests were carried out using Scarf Lap Joints (SLJs). Commercially available epoxy (Atlac 580) was used as adhesive and fiber reinforced epoxy/glass (Hgw 2372 Grade G10 EP GC 203) was used as adherends. The stress analyses were performed using a three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM). The FEM analyses were executed with Ansys (V.14.0.1). Experimental results were compared with the FEM results and found quite reasonable. The results have indicated that when overlap angle increases, the failure load values also decrease in all joints.