An Assessment of Failure Criteria to Predict the Strength of Adhesively Bonded Composite Double Lap Joints

Interlaminar delamination within the surface ply of a composite adherend adjacent to adhesive layer is a typical failure mode for adhesively bonded composite lap joints. To characterise interlaminar delamination, new failure criteria were proposed and then compared with other failure criteria developed previously. These failure criteria were then utilised in the simplified one-dimensional and finite element analysis procedures to predict strength for adhesively bonded composite double lap joint specimens. It was shown that there was a good correlation between the measured failure loads and those predicted using nonlinear adhesive material properties.