Single-strap adhesively bonded joints with square or tapered adherends in tensile test conditions

In order to ensure efficiency, safety and reliability of bonded joints, an adequate understanding of their behaviour is necessary. This work focuses on the evaluation of the deformations and stresses in adhesively bonded single-strapped joints based on a novel analytical solution, adequate both for square and tapered adherends, and by using linear or nonlinear finite element analyses. The calculus models are validated experimentally by strain gauge measurements and by using the digital image correlation method. Tensile tests are simulated analytically and numerically in order to emphasise the influence of some parameters as: the length of the outer and inner adherends, the relative length of the overlap zones, the joint eccentricity and the rigidity of the adherends. A comparison between results obtained for single-strapped joints in tension for clamped or simply supported ends is also presented.