INFLUENCE OF COHESIVE ZONE MODELS SHAPE ON ADHESIVELY BONDED JOINTS

Cohesive zone models have been increasingly used to simulate fracture of adhesively bonded joint. In order to understand the relation between the delamination of the different types of adhesives and the shape of cohesive zone models (CZMs), the uniaxial tension and shear experiments were conducted using two distinct adhesives, an epoxy-based adhesive in a brittle manner and VHB^TM tape adhesive in a ductile manner. Three types of CZMs shapes are adopted, including exponential, bilinear, and trapezoidal models. The results demonstrate that the bilinear CZM more suitably simulate the tension and shear failure of the brittle adhesive, while the exponential CZM suitably describes the ductile adhesive. The cohesive strength, work of separation and the shape parameters are the significant effect factors on the simulation results of the uniaxial tension and shear debonding procedures. Nevertheless, the shape of CZM has certain influences on the simulation of the double cantilever beam fracture. The comparison between the numerical and the experiment results demonstrate that the bilinear CZM more suitably simulate the double cantilever beam fracture of the brittle adhesive, while the trapezoidal CZM suitably describes the ductile adhesive. The investigation results are significant to use CZMs to precisely analyze adhesively bonded joints fracture.