The effect of bond-line thickness on fatigue crack growth rate in adhesively bonded joints

The effect of bond-line thickness on fatigue crack growth rate in adhesively bonded joints

Pascoe, J.A. (TU Delft Structural Integrity & Composites)
Zavatta, N. (TU Delft Structural Integrity & Composites; University of Bologna)
Troiani, E. (University of Bologna)
Alderliesten, R.C. (TU Delft Structural Integrity & Composites)

2020-04-15

The effect of adhesive thickness on fatigue crack growth in an epoxy film adhesive (FM94) was investigated, using a combination of experiments and numerical modelling. For the range of thicknesses investigated an increased thickness led to an increased crack growth rate. It was found that the energy required per unit of crack growth did not depend on the adhesive thickness. In contrast, the energy available for crack growth does depend on the adhesive thickness. The numerical analysis confirms that the energy required per unit crack growth is not sensitive to the adhesive thickness, but that the plastic energy dissipation increases with the thickness. The experimental results imply that this increase of plasticity has an anti-shielding effect, as the crack growth rate is increased.

Adhesive bonding
Fatigue crack growth
Plasticity
Strain energy
Thickness effect

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9c41e4c4-229d-4587-8be6-db9cd1cfa755

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2020.106959

0013-7944

Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 229

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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journal article

© 2020 J.A. Pascoe, N. Zavatta, E. Troiani, R.C. Alderliesten