A sandwich element can be isolated in all two-dimensional adhesive joints, thereby simplifying the analysis of strain and stress. An adhesive sandwich model has been developed that accommodates arbitrary loading, a bilinear adherend stress-strain response, and any form of nonlinear adhesive behavior. The model accounts for both the bending deformation and the shear deformation of the adherends. Stress and strain distributions in the adhesive were obtained by solving a system of six differential equations using a finite-difference method. For a sample adhesive sandwich, the adhesive strains and stresses from the new model were compared with those of other models. Finally, the model was coupled with an analytical solution for the detached section of an adhesive joint in peel. The stress and strain distributions in the adhesive and the root curvature of the peel adherend were then compared with finite element results. An accompanying article in this issue uses the model with experimental peel data to investigate the suitability of various adhesive failure criteria.