Interlaminar Stress Distribution Within an Adhesive Layer in the Nonlinear Range

The solution for interlaminar stress distribution in an adhesive layer within a bonded structure is highly complex due to the predominantly inelastic nature of the polymeric adhesive. The present study attacks this problem using a nonlinear finite-element method and an empirical effective-stress-strain relationship derived experimentally for a typical epoxy adhesive loaded at a constant strain rate. The stress distribution in the critical zone of the interlaminar layer of a symmetric doubler model is presented.