Högskolan i Skövde

Adhesive joints are designed to transfer load in shear since both the fracture energy and the fracture stress are larger in shear than in peel. Shear deformation is isochoric, however, the fracture process involves nucleation and growth of a multitude of slanted microcracks. In order to grow, these microcracks open up. Thus, adhesive layers show a tendency to deform in peel during shear fracture. This opening is localized to the fracture process zone and the adherends have to separate locally over the process zone to allow for the adhesive to swell. Depending on the stiffness of the adherends, the opening mode is more or less prohibited. With stiffer adherends, the opening is obstructed more efficiently than with softer adherends. Micromechanical studies indicate that the constraints of the peel deformation during shear loading have a profound influence on the strength of the joint. In the present study, we compress the process zone during experiments. Repeated experiments with ENF-specimens are performed. A compressive force is applied on the first part of the adhesive layer by use of a pneumatic cylinder. The experiments are evaluated using the path independent J-integral. Together with measurements of the shear and peel deformation of the adhesive layer at the start of the layer, the complete shear stress vs shear deformation relations are evaluated. It is shown that the inhibited peel deformation gives a substantial increase of the fracture energy