Experimental and numerical investigation of unbalanced boron/epoxy-aluminum single lap joints subjected to a corrosive environment

摘要

The present study focusses on the experimental and analytical investigation of unbalanced Boron/Epoxy-Aluminum 2024T3 single lap joints subjected to tensile loading, after being exposed to a corrosive environment (salt spray chamber) in order to study its effects on their strength and failure. FM94, high strength adhesive, was used for bonding. Different overlap lengths have been tested and an extensive experimental analysis has been executed. A geometrically nonlinear, two-dimensional finite element analysis has been employed to determine the hydrostatic stress and the shear strain distribution across the two interfaces of the single-lap joints, for four different overlap lengths. The results mainly prove that the overlap length and the aging conditions directly affect the joint tensile strength, while an optimum value of the overlap length can be defined. The maximum shear and normal stresses are found to increase as the overlap length increases, but the lap shear strength is not proportional to the overlap length. A good agreement between finite element results and experimental findings was found.