In the present work, an experimental and numerical study is carried out to analyze the behaviour of adhesively bonded joints in symmetrical patch repaired CFRP laminate under tensile load. In first part of the experimental study, digital image correlation (DIC) technique is employed for material characterization of adhesive and composite as per ASTM standard and they are used in numerical simulation. In second part, same technique is used to analyze the strain field distribution developed in existing adhesive layer between composite panel and patch. High peel and shear strain develops near the overlap end which eventually lead to debonding of patch are analyzed using 2D DIC. Two different kind of adhesive materials are considered in this study. The effect of nature of adhesive and patch edge tapering on strain distribution in the adhesive layer is also closely examined. The failure mechanism is also studied. Finally, the experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions and they compare good. © QinetiQ Ltd 2013.