Verification of Selected Failure Criteria for Adhesive Bonded Elements with Different Stiffness through the Use of Methacrylic Adhesive

This study presents the testing results of methacrylic adhesive single-lap joints made from elements with different stiffness and of the adhesive itself, using cast specimens. Methods for the preparation and testing of material specimens of the adhesive joints have been presented. Moreover, an attempt was undertaken to determine the strength criterion and find out which of the presented calculation methods enables the most precise assessment of strength in the tested group of single-lap joints, that differ in terms of the adhered stiffness and thickness. For this purpose, C45 steel and 5754 aluminium flat bars were bonded. Stress distributions were determined for failure forces obtained in the experiment by means of three basic analytic and numerical methods. Stress and strain states were compared, indicating the highest consistency for the value of normal peel stresses acting in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the joint tension. Reduced stresses provided by the analyses reached values higher than those which were achieved during the specimen tension testing.