Using the relative displacements of the layer two interfaces to calculate the free-edge stress intensity factor of bonded joints

International audienceIn this paper, a method allowing a quick calculation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) at the corners of an adhesive layer is proposed. Methods available in the literature so far refer to stresses related to the two main loading modes: peeling (mode I) and shearing (mode II). In practice, it appears that it is not easy to extract from analysis models the stresses that could be used in this calculation. The special feature of the proposed approach is to refer to the relative displacements of specific points taken on the two interfaces of the adhesive layer. It is shown that the use of the displacements given by a low detailed FE model is sufficient to obtain an accurate evaluation of the SIFs