Elastoplastic FEM Stress Analysis and Strength Evaluation of Adhesive Tapered Lap Joints of Hollow Shafts Subjected to Tensile Loads

Abstract

Tensile strength of adhesively bonded tapered lap joints of hollow shafts is investigated in this study. In tapered lap joint, the bonded area is increased even in hollow shafts which are relatively thin. Furthermore, assembling and adjusting the axes of the shafts are easier because of the self-aligning effect. In the experiments, the elastoplastic stress-strain behavior of the adhesive was measured by the uni-axial tensile test of the bulk specimen. The tensile strength of the joints with various taper angles was tested subsequently. In the analysis, the stress distributions at the interface between the shafts and the adhesive are calculated using the finite element method by taking the elastoplastic behaviors of the adhesive and the shafts into consideration. A tensile strength prediction method is proposed based on the numerically obtained stress distributions and its features are discussed by comparing the measured strengths with the predicted ones.