Effect of adhesive thickness on the Mode I and II strain energy release rates. Comparative study between different approaches for the calculation of Mode I & II SERR's

The assembly of composite components using adhesives, is one of the principal methods used for the assembly process. Composite materials have lately been used extensively in different engineering domains, as a result their use in wind energy, or specifically wind turbine blades has also seen a significant increase. This paper deals with the problem of determining the resistance of bonding and the effect of adhesive thickness on the resistance based on the strain energy release rate in both Mode I (peeling) and Mode II (shearing) type failure. Different theories are used to measure the SERR's and the effect of thickness on the measured SERR can be seen pronounced with each theory. This has been attributed to the type of failure and also the deformation of the interface before failure in each thickness case. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.