Study of shear transfer in Al/epoxy joint by digital photoelasticity

An improved six-step phase-shifting method is proposed for calculating full-field shear stress based on a four-step color phase-shifting method in digital photoelasticity. The method was verified using a disk under diametral compression and then applied to an aluminum alloy/epoxy joint for studying the shear transfer behavior. Experimental results revealed that the isochromatic fringe order and shear stress at the bonding interface are distributed continuously and increased with compression. In particular, an antisymmetric thermal residual shear stress appears at the bonding interface, because of the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of Al and the resin. This indicates that the thermal residual shear stress at the bonding interface is self-balanced and reaches a peak at the edges of the bonding interface. The load transfer is realized by the shear band from the bonding interface to the bottom support. Basically, the bonding interfacial shear stress is balanced with the load.