THREE-DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF ADHESIVELY BONDED PLATE

Alexander Bogdanovich and Indrajith Kizhakkethar

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to analyze specific features of stress distributions in double-lap bonded joints using 3-D “full Lagrange” 27-node finite element available in ABAQUS package. The analysis is performed in several steps. In first step the full 3-D structure is solved (“global” analysis); this should provide converged displacements at any point of the structure. Then a number of local 3-D regions, which are of special interest due to expected high stress gradients, are solved separately (“submodel” analysis) using displacement values calculated in the first step as the boundary conditions. Same type of finite elements is used in each step and for each local region, but local meshes of elements can be taken much finer than in the global analysis. The procedure is then repeated using displacement values obtained in the preceding, “coarser” submodel analysis for more detailed stress calculation in the successive, “finer” submodel analysis. This allows one to consistently increase accuracy of stress predictions without increasing total number of degrees of freedom in the computational model. The procedure is applied for stress analysis of composite to metal double-lap joint. Illustrative examples show great potential of this approach, especially when detailed local 3-D stress analysis is required for thin-walled bonded structures.