Fracture analysis in adhesive composite material/aluminum joints under mode-I loading; experimental and numerical approaches

Assessment and evaluation of fracture characteristics are very important in adhesive joint for achieving a safety mode. In this paper, fracture was investigated in mode-I in adhesive composite material/aluminum alloy joints. To achieve this aim, Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) was used to evaluate fracture in mode-I loading (opening). Bonding was realized by epoxy adhesive as one of the most important and widely used adhesives in aerospace and automotive industries. Modified Beam Theory (MBT) and Compliance Calibration Method (CCM) were formulated to calculate Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR). The obtained experimental results were verified by comparison with Finite Element (FE) analysis. FE results were derived from using Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) and J-integral approaches in two and three dimension (2-D & 3-D) simulation. Experiment tests and numerical analyses showed good agreement and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed experiment and numerical methods. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.