Modeling and Analysis of the strength of Adhesively Bond CFRP-Aluminium T-joints

Abstract

The uses of adhesively bond carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)-aluminium T-joints in aircraft, marine and automotive are rapidly increased but the majority of these applications are based on a lot of special experiments which are purposed to check the joint strength. The strength of adhesively bond which goes along with the technological parameters will influences final product fatigue durability as well as service life. At the same time, as the production environment changes, technological parameters are difficulty to decide. This paper focused on the analysis of the strength of adhesively boned CFRP-aluminum T-joints, developed a new unified model and analysis method. Firstly, the adherends (CFRP and aluminum) are modeled as beams or wide plates, and are considered as generally orthotropic laminates using classical laminate theory. Secondly, by assuming the adhesive layer to be a linear elastic material, and the adhesive thickness and the adhesive Young’s modulus are small with respect to the characteristic length of the joint and to the Young’s modulus of the adherents, the adhesive layer is modeled. Thirdly, the multiple-point boundary value problem constituted by the governing equations set with the imposed boundary conditions is built, on base of which, the joint strength is solved numerically by using the finite element simulation. Lastly, a case of CFRP aircraft panel adhesively bond is studied, and the result which is compared with the experiments proves that the purposed modeling and analysis method can solve the strength analysis problem of the Adhesively Bond CFRP-Aluminum T-joints efficiently.