Metallic fiber-reinforced adhesively bonded joints

Adding particles and fibers to the adhesive layer in adhesively bonded joints can increase adhesive toughness and improve stress distribution in the adhesive layer. In this paper, geometric and material parameters of metal fibers employed for reinforcement of adhesively bonded single lap joint (SLJ) were studied using experimental investigations and finite element modeling. The experimental results showed that incorporating metal fibers in the adhesive layer of a bonded joint can have considerable influence on the joint strength. This was in correlation with the numerical results predicting improved stress distributions of the adhesive layer when the metal fibers were incorporated in the adhesive layer. The diameter and the stiffness of the fibers and the distance between the fibers were found as three key parameters in design of metal fiber-reinforced adhesive joints. It was found that reducing the distance between the fibers, increasing the fiber diameter and choosing a stiffer material for the fibers improved the stress distribution and reduced the maximum and average stress values in the adhesive layer.