Effect of surface roughness on the strength of cleavage joints

In this paper experimental and numerical results on the effect of surface roughness on the cleavage strength of standard steel/steel cleavage specimens have been presented. Cleavage joints with different surface roughnesses were mechanically tested and examined. In numerical modelling, the effect was idealised by small butt joints with macro-roughness to determine the maximum normal tensile stresses at the interface between adhesive and adherend. Good agreements were found between the numerical and experimental results. It was also found that average roughness (R-a) appears to have a linear relationship with average cleavage strength. Average cleavage strength is also found to be a function of linear profile length (R-lo). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.