| Summary: |
The use of adhesively bonded joints is clearly increasing over the last decades due to a number of advantages such as the fact that it enables a more uniform stress distribution and can bond dissimilar materials. However there are still some disadvantages that limit their more extensive use, being the main the lack of reliable design criteria. The broad objective of this project is to contribute for the development of improved design criteria for adhesive joints. The criteria are based in either a continuum mechanics approach or in a fracture mechanics approach. The project is focused on the latter. The two main objectives are:
1. develop experimental procedures to determine in a practical and universal way the fracture parameters GI, GII and GI+II;
2. design common adhesive joints with a fracture mechanics approach to validate the parameters determined in 1. |