The asymptotic form of the interface corner stress field in a butt joint is discussed, and a failure analysis based on the stress intensity factor defining the magnitude of this asymptotic stress field is validated. A stress singularity of type Kr-delta(delta < 0) exists at an interface corner in a butt joint (i.e. where an interface intersects a stress-free edge). A simple relation defines the stress intensity factor K for an idealized butt joint composed of a thin elastic adhesive layer bonded between rigid adherends and subjected to transverse tension and uniform adhesive shrinkage. This stress intensity factor, referred to here as the free-edge stress intensity factor Kf, is applicable to both plane strain and axisymmetric geometries. The way that uniform adhesive shrinkage (thermal contraction) during cure alters interface corner stress fields is also discussed. When adhesive shrinkage is present, both constant and singular terms must be included in the asymptotic solution to attain good agreement with full field finite element results over a reasonably large interface corner region. Experiments have been carried out to investigate the applicability of a K-f-based failure criterion to butt joints. Butt joints were fabricated by bonding two stainless steel rods together with an epoxy adhesive (Epon 828/T-403). The measured joint strength increased by a factor of 2 as the bond thickness was reduced from 2.0 to 0.25 mm. The observed bond thickness effect is accurately predicted when failure is presumed to occur at a critical K-f value. This fracture criterion suggests that the butt joint tensile strength varies roughly as the reciprocal of the cube root of bond thickness when the adhesive＇s Poisson＇s ratio is between 0.3 and 0.4, residual stress levels at the interface corner are negligible, the adherends are essentially rigid relative to the adhesive, and small-scale yielding conditions hold at the interface corner.