Coupling effects in adhesive bonded joints

This paper presents the use of a newly developed unified approach for the analysis and design of adhesive bonded joints that takes into account the effects of asymmetric laminated adherends to study the influence of coupling effects in the adherends of adhesive bonded joints. In the unified approach used the adherends are modelled as wide beams or plates in cylindrical bending, and are considered as generally orthotropic laminates using classical laminate theory. The adhesive layer is modelled as linear shear and tension/compression springs. The governing equations are formulated in terms of sets of first-order ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically using the so-called `multi-segment method' of integration.