Experimental investigations and numerical modelling of steel adhesive joints reinforced by rivets

The paper deals with experimental investigations of steel adhesive double lap joints (DLJ) reinforced by rivets, which can be applied in different branches of engineering: aerospace, naval, mechanical, civil, etc. The experiments with application of the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system ARAMIS allows for exact monitoring of the deformation process of the considered hybrid joint. The numerical simulations, done with the ABAQUS code, enable investigations of: the stress concentrations in different parts of the joint and the analysis of the whole system behaviour up to failure. The problem was treated for riveted, adhesive and hybrid (adhesive and rivet) joints. Although the adhesive joint was very strong, the application of an additional rivet lead to very significant Energy Absorption (EA) by about 35% in comparison to a simple adhesive DLJ.