The adhesive thickness is very important to the bonding strength of the stiffened panel. Taking fourbar T-shaped stringer stiffened panel as the object

measure the springback of T-shaped stringer by tri-ordinate measuring machine

observe the bonding section and measure the adhesive thickness of the panel by sectioning

to explore several influencing factors

including springback deformation

flange width and edge chamfer of the T-shaped stringer on adhesive thickness. Meantime

simulate the springback and the flange deformation of T-shape stringer by finite element software ABAQUS. The result shows that the springback is 0.4°–0.5°

which has a significant effect on the adhesive thickness. The thickness of adhesive layer from the stringer edge to web changes from thick to thin when flange width is 22 mm. The thickness of adhesive layer from the stringer edge to web changes from thin to thick and then to thin when flange width is 73 mm. The adhesive thickness can be improved by edge chamfer

avoiding sudden change of adhesive thickness because of skin wrinkle

and then improve bonding quality. During part manufacturing

the adhesive thickness can be significantly improved by controlling the above factors to ensure the bonding strength of the parts.