Högskolan i Skövde

An experimental method to determine the complete stress-elongation relation for a structural adhesive loaded in peel is presented. Experiments are performed on the double cantilever beam specimen, which facilitates a more stable experimental set-up as compared with conventional methods like the butt-joint test. The method is based on the concept of equilibrium of the energetic forces acting on the specimen. Two sources of energetic forces are identified: the start of the adhesive layer and the positions of the two acting loads. By use of the concept of equilibrium of energetic forces, it is possible to measure the energy release rate of the adhesive layer instantaneously during an experiment. The complete stress-elongation relation is found to be the derivative of the energy release rate with respect to the elongation of the adhesive layer at its start. By this procedure, an effective property of the adhesive layer is measured. That is, the fields are assumed to be constant through the thickness of the layer and only vary along the layer. To investigate the validity of this approach, experiments are performed on five different groups of specimens with different dimensions. This leads to large variations in the length of the damage zone at the start of the adhesive layer. Four of the experimental groups are used to determine the stress-elongation relation. This is found to be independent of the geometry. For the remaining experimental group, the adherends deform plastically and simulations are performed with the stress-elongation relation determined from the four elastic groups. It is found that the relation cannot be used to accurately predict the behaviour of the experiments where the adherends deform plastically. This indicates that the stress-elongation relation has limited applicability.

Several methods exist to estimate the fracture energy for adhesive joints using the double cantilever beam specimen and linear elastic fracture mechanics. Since the mechanical properties of all adhesives are non-linear, errors are generated. By use of an exact solution experiments are simulated. These are evaluated with eight different methods. The influence of the constitutive parameters is systematically studied. This influence is small for most methods. The error due to the choice of evaluation method is considerably larger. One of the commonly used methods gives accurate results; the error is less than 3%. However, most methods yield substantial errors.

The methods to estimate the fracture energy using DCB-specimens as advocated in common standards. For instance, ASTM D 3433 and BS 7991:2001 are based on a compliance method, i.e. on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). Since the mechanical properties of almost all adhesives are non-linear, errors are generated. In some of the standards, the non-linear behaviour is compensated for by the use of correction terms generated from the experiments. An analysis of the methods of evaluation the fracture energy from experiments is performed. This analysis is performed first by simulating an experiment using realistic data for an engineering adhesive and then, by analysing the results with different methods. In this way, the correct fracture energy is known beforehand and the error in the evaluated fracture energy can be determined. In the present work it is shown that the magnitude of this error depends on the length of the crack. The results show that some commonly  used methods generate substantial errors when a large region of non-linear deformation precedes the crack tip. It is also shown that methods based on nonlinear fracture methods do not produce this kind of error.