Effects of adherends’ misalignment on the strength of single-lap joints under 3-point and 4-point bending tests

Geometric errors of parts affect not only the geometric deviations of the products obtained by assembling these parts through glue but also the mechanical strength of these products. Therefore, it is needed to investigate the relationship between geometrical deviations and the mechanical strength of assemblies due to a bonding process. In this work, the influence of adherends’ misalignment on the 3- and 4-point flexural strength of a single-lap joint was investigated. A numerical model that considers the joint’s geometric errors was developed and applied to different cases with different values of adhesive thickness and adherends’ misalignment. The obtained results show that adherends’ misalignment affects the performance of SLJs; in fact, the maximum load is always lower when SLJs have an adherends’ misalignment. The numerical results were validated experimentally. The original contribution of the paper was to demonstrate numerically and experimentally the relationship between adherends’ misalignment and flexural strength of single-lap bonded joints.