Experimental and Analytical Investigation of the Shear Fracture Behavior of Bonded Joints

Abstract

The demand of adhesive bonding as technique for the strengthening of existing structures is currently increasing in many engineering fields. Therefore, the prediction of bonded joints fracture behavior is an open issue for the structural safety of repairs. With this aim, a cohesive zone approach is adopted to determine the shear fracture behavior of epoxy resin interface layer of end notched flexure (ENF) specimen. Experimental tangential slip displacements of adherends are evaluated by digital image correlation (DIC) analysis. The identified traction-separation law can be implemented in a finite element (FE) code to predict the decohesion of adhesively bonded joints.