Abstract. A new smart adhesive joint system was developed by integrating (surface bonding) electromechanical piezoelectric patches. The bending moments in this joint system could be adaptively controlled by adjusting the electric field applied to the surface bonded piezoelectric patches. As a result, the stress distribution in the adhesive layer is more uniformly redistributed, thus reducing the stress concentration in the ends of the interface bond line. A detailed theoretical model was developed for the analysis of a single-strap adhesive joint system to study the influence of the surface bonding of piezoelectric patches and the distribution of the stress in the adhesive layer. The integrity of the proposed solution was verified by analyzing the joint with a finite element method. The comparison of the results demonstrated the viability of the proposed smart joint system, as well as validating the accuracy of our proposed solution.

Print publication: Issue 5 (October 2005)
Received 7 June 2004, in final form 20 June 2005
Published 2 September 2005