An experimental study of the interfacial fracture behavior of Titanium/CFRP adhesive joints under mode I and mode II fatigue

In the present paper, the mode I and II fatigue fracture performance of a novel Titanium/CFRP adhesive joint is investigated. The adhesive joint under study is composed of two thin adherents, one Titanium sheet and one CFRP laminate, and is reinforced from both sides with two thick aluminum beams to increase its flexural stiffness and ensure the non-yielding of the Titanium. The interfacial fracture resistance is in the focus and aspects such as the loading that defines the crack propagation threshold as well as the utilization of an appropriate Paris-like law to optimally describe the experimental data are under investigation.