AbstractThis paper presents some of the important results obtained from a series of studies on cohesive fracture in adhesively bonded joints. Due to the complex nature of the adhesive joint fracture, an accurate and efficient numerical method particularly suitable for the present problem has been developed, based on a hybrid‐stress finite element formulation. Fracture characteristics in adhesively bonded joints are described in terms of local crack‐tip deformation and stress fields in the polymeric adhesive layer. Effects of material properties, joint geometry, and bond‐line thickness on the crack behavior are studied for classical lap‐shear and currently used double‐cantilever‐beam joints. Of particular interest are the crack‐tip stress intensities in the adhesive layer; their values are obtained for several cases of practical importance.