Tab adhesive in a composite compression specimen

Abstract Determination of the compressive strength of a composite depends on many experimental parameters. One of them is the adhesive used to bond the tabs to the compression specimen. Experimental results show that the compressive strength has no significant change when different adhesives with different moduli are used. The compressive strength was also shown to be independent of adhesive thickness in a composite compression specimen. A finite element analysis was utilized in this study to investigate the effect of tab adhesive properties, i.e., the modulus and thickness of the adhesive layer, on the compressive strength. The stress distributions along the adhesive layer and stress concentrations at the tab tip of a composite compression specimen are presented. The analytical prediction coincides with the limited experimental data.