Cohesive Zone Impact Analysis of Structural Adhesive Joints

Understand the behaviour of a joint under dynamic loads is a hot topic in the research community. This work studies numerically and experimentally the effect of the adhesive type and overlap length (LO) on the strength of adhesively bonded single lap joints (SLJ) under impact loads. Araldite® AV138 and Sikaforce® 7752, two adhesives with different ductility were used to bond unidirectional composite adherends. Drop weight tests were performed and simulated using a cohesive zone model (CZM) approach. It was concluded that increasing the LO increases the joint strength. This effect is more notorious in joints with more flexible adhesives.