Adhesive bonding of joints is one of the most commonly and widely used joining methods in piping systems. This work is concerned with the investigation of the influence of the non-linear behavior of the adhesive used in such bonded joints on their performance. The parametric analysis module of ABAQUS was used to model the joint. The model facilitated the analysis of different geometric, loading and material characteristics of the system, in particular the adhesive non-linearity, which is of prime interest in this work. By using the Ramberg - Osgood plasticity model, the failure threshold of the adhesive for various joint lengths ( hereafter referred to overlap length) was characterized. The plasticity model used in this study was fine-tuned using only a limited number of known parameters, through comparison with the results of the finite element ( FE) simulation. The results obtained from the FE analysis were verified by experimental results. The FE strategy is demonstrated to be an effective means for predicting the capacity of such joints, where conducting a pure shear test is either impossible or difficult to accomplish. Contrary to the findings based on the elastic finite element analysis, the plasticity analysis revealed that the overlap length affects the ultimate strength of the joint.