Damage in Adhesive Joints During Low Cycle Fatigue

The objective of this research is to study the damage behavior of bulk adhesive and single lap joint (SLJ) specimens during low cycle fatigue (LCF). Fatigue tests under constant stress amplitude were done and strain response was measured through cycles to failure using the bulk adhesive and SLJ data. A non linear damage model was used to fit experimental results. Identification of the damage parameters for bulk adhesive was obtained from the damage against accumulated plastic strain plot. It is shown that the plastic strain can be obtained from the constant stress test if the instantaneous elastic modulus, i.e. modulus affected by damage, is evaluated for each cycle. On the other hand, damage in SLJ was seen mainly in the adhesive for itself — no substrate failure — this fact is used to propose that fatigue response in the joint is due to continuum damage accumulation in the adhesive as the number of cycles increases. Damage behavior under compressive loads was not taken into account but good correlation of numerical and experimental data was obtained. It was found that damage evolution behaves in a non linear manner as the plastic deformation grows for each cycle: on fatigue onset an accelerated damage grow is observed, then a proportional evolution, and finally a rapid failure occurs; this characteristics were seen in both the SLJ and bulk adhesive specimen. So far, this research takes the damage model found in a standard adhesive specimen and assumes it is accurate enough to represent the damage behavior of the SLJ configuration.