Thermal behavior and tensile properties of composite joints with bonded embedded metal plate under thermal circumstance

Tensile experiments of composite joints with bonded embedded steel plate were conducted at 25 °C. Based on the experiments, thermal and mechanical finite element models were developed to investigate thermal behavior and tensile properties of the joint under 25 °C, 50 °C and 100 °C. The effects of side adhesive thickness, material parameters variation and metal material were discussed. Results show that higher ambient temperature contributes to faster temperature transfer but lower tensile properties, and the effect of material parameters variation should be considered especially under elevated temperature. Compared with using 45 steel and Al-7075, the joint using TC4 possesses low thermal stress and high tensile strength. Thicker side adhesive contributes to larger failure load and structural stiffness in a certain range.