Experimental and numerical study on GFRP-GLASS adhesively bonded joints

Abstract

This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations on adhesively bonded double lap joints composed of glass and GFRP pultruded profiles. The experimental programme comprised the study of the effects of using three different adhesives (with varying stiffness) on the bond behaviour of the joints in terms of stiffness, strength, ultimate displace-ment and axial strain development along the GFRP-adhesive interface. In the numerical study, 2D finite element models of the joints were developed in order to simulate the bond behaviour observed in the experiments. Interface elements with either linear or non-linear bond-slip consti-tutive relations were used to simulate the adhesive layers and their shear properties. The numer-ical models were validated by comparing experimental and numerical load vs. relative dis-placement curves and their accuracy was further verified through comparison of the load vs. axial strain distributions along the interfaces.