Recent Approaches in Constitutive Behavior and Testing of Structural Adhesives

Adhesively bonded joints are complex composite structures with at least one of the constituents, namely the adhesive, most often, being a composite material itself due to the presence of secondary phases such as fillers, carriers, etc. The joint structure possesses a complex state of stress with high stress concentrations, and often, singularities due to the terminating adhesive layer where the substrates may possess sharp corners. With these issues in mind, this article discusses the following: Typical joint stress distributions; Stress concentrations and the effect of joint scarf angle on stress concentrations; Singularity methods; Reductions in stress concentrations due to viscoelastic adhesive behavior, as well as increases in joint strength due to rate dependent viscoelastic adhesive behavior; Geometrical methods to reduce stress concentrations; Bulk adhesive as composite material; The concept of the interphase; Damage models; The effects of cure and processing conditions on the mechanical behavior.