A two-term stress function approach to evaluate stress distributions in bonded joints of different geometries

The paper presents a method for the evaluation of the singular stress fields in bonded joints of different geometries. The stress distributions are represented by a two-term stress expansion, under the hypothesis that both the first and the second terms are in the variable separable form. The method is based on the stress function approach, where the formulation is completed analytically and the resulting set of ordinary differential equations is solved numerically. The capability of the formulation to account for the actual elastic properties of the substrates allows an accurate description of the singular stress field to be obtained even in the case of joints made of materials with comparable elastic properties. The influence of adhesive joint design parameters such as the type of joint, geometry and material properties on the generalized stress intensity factors will also be presented and discussed.