Strategies for the Analysis of the Non-Linear Behaviour of an Adhesive in Bonded Assemblies

The objective of this study is to define a reliable tool for dimensioning of adhesively bonded assemblies. Stress singularities can contribute to the initiation and the propagation of crack in adhesive joints. Therefore, understanding the stress distribution in an adhesive joint can lead to improvements in adhesively-bonded assemblies and to develop reliable experimental tests in order to analyse the nonlinear behaviour of an adhesive in an assembly. The numerical determination of how stresses evolve through the thickness of the adhesive allows us to propose experimental devices which strongly limit the stress concentrations in the adhesive. The experimental results, obtained from the proposed modified Arcan, underline various aspects of the non-linear behaviour of the adhesive for radial loadings, and are useful to develop accurate numerical models. A non associated elasto-visco-plastic model is proposed to accurately describe the experimental behaviour under tensile-shear loadings.