Effect of a thin plastic adhesive layer on the stress singularities in a bi-material wedge

Abstract

Geometric singularities for perfect bond constitute a fairly well explored area in linear elasticity. In this paper, an effect of a thin plastic adhesive layer on the singular stress field at the interface corner of a glued bi-material wedge is studied within a simple model. Following the conventional one-dimensional analysis of bonded joints, the adhesive layer is treated as a layer of displacement discontinuity between two materials. A new characteristic equation for the determination of the characteristics of the singular stress field is derived based on the classical works of Williams and Bogy. The new characteristic equation is studied for certain particular composites and angles, which commonly occur due to joining dissimilar materials. The focus of this paper is the problem associated with elimination of the singular stress field, with the goal of providing an approach for designing singular-free adhesive joints. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.