Dissimilar material joints with and without free-edge stress singularities: Part I. A biologically inspired design

An integrated experimental and numerical investigation was conducted for removing the free-adge stress singularities in dissimilar material joints. A convex inter-face/joint design, inspired by the shape and mechanics of trees, will result in reduced stress singularities at bimaterial corners for most engineering material combinations.In situ photoelasticity experiments on convex polycarbonate-aluminum joints showed that the free-edge stress singularity was successfully removed. As a result, the new design not only improves the static load transfer capacity of dissimilar meterial joints, but also yields more reasonable interfacial tensile strength evaluation. For convex polycarbonate-aluminum and poly(methyl methacrylate)-aluminum joint specimens, the ultimate tensile load increased up to 81% while the total material volume was reduced by at least 15% over that of traditional butt-joint specimens with severe free-edge stress singularities.