Effect of Piezoelectric Patches on the Behavior of Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joints

Abstract

In order to reduce the influence of the maximum peel and shear stress concentrations in the adhesive layer, a smart adhesively bonded single lap joint system was developed by surface bonding of piezoelectric patches onto a typical single lap joint. The forces and bending moments at the edges of the developed smart joint system can be adaptively controlled by adjusting the applied electric field in the piezoelectric patches, thus reducing the peel and shear stresses concentration effect in the adhesive layer. In order to verify the effect of surface bonding of piezoelectric patches in smart single lap adhesive joints, an analytical model based on shear lag assumptions was developed to evaluate the shear stress distribution and to predict the peel stress. For this purpose, the beam on elastic foundation (BOEF) approach in the adhesive layer was used. It was established that the piezoelectric patched joint could reduce the stress concentrations in the lap joint edges. The influence of electric field, location, and size of the piezoelectric patches in the single lap joint was also investigated.

Keywords:

• Adhesive joints
• Patch
• Piezoelectric
• Single lap
• Stress analysis

Notes

Presented in part at the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computational Engineering and Experimenting (ACE-X 2009), Rome, Italy, 22–23 June 2009.