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A B S T R A C T Adhesively bonded lap shear joints have been investigated widely and several ideas have been proposed for improving joint strength by reducing bondline stress concentrations. These include application of adhesive fillets at the overlap ends and use of adhesive with graded properties in the overlap area. Another, less common, approach is to deform the substrates in the overlap area in order to obtain a more desirable bondline stress distribution. Previous work carried out by the authors on a number of different substrate materials indicated that a reverse-bent joint geometry is useful for increasing joint strength. Results from static stress analysis and experimental testing demonstrated that significant improvements could be achieved. This paper presents results of further work carried out to assess the fatigue performance of reverse-bent joints. Substrates with different yield and plastic deformation characteristics were used and the effects of different overlap lengths on strength were examined. The results of this research show that the improvements obtained under static tests conditions translate to even higher benefits in fatigue. The paper also explains the failure mechanism of the joints under fatigue loading.

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