Comparison of the Effects of Debonds and Voids in Adhesive Joints

An analytical model is developed to compare the effects of voids and debonds on the interfacial shear stresses between the adherends and the adhesive in simple lap joints. Since the adhesive material above the debond may undergo some extension (either due to applied load or thermal expansion or both), a modified shear lag model, where the adhesive can take on extensional as well as shear deformation, is used in the analysis. The adherends take on only axial loads and act as membranes. Two coupled nondimensional differential equations are derived, and in general, five parameters govern the stress distribution in the overlap region. As expected, the major differences between the debond and the void occur for the stresses near the edge of the defect itself. Whether the defect is a debond or a void, is hardly discernible by the stresses at the overlap ends for central defect sizes up to the order of 70 percent of the overlap region. If the defect occurs precisely at or very close to either end of the overlap, however, differences of the order of 20 percent in the peak stresses can be obtained.