An Investigation into the Use of an Embedded Process Zone Model for Predicting the Structural Behaviour of Adhesive Bonded Joints

The study presented in this paper was carried out to assess the use of an embedded process zone based model in a commercial finite element code for predicting the behaviour of adhesively bonded structures. The relevant adhesive properties were measured using a variety of test methods and the results applied to the analysis of a single lap joint. Having demonstrated satisfactory accuracy in simulating the behaviour of the single lap joint the same methodology was then applied to a more complex structure. The structure used was a T shaped structure formed from two adhesively bonded aluminium rails. Despite some variability in the test results acceptable correlation with the analysis results was again achieved. The effects of variability in the adhesive material data on the output from the Finite Element analysis were investigated using a statistical study. This showed only a limited sensitivity to the interface toughness parameter.