A.B. Aghdam

Experimental and numerical investigations of crack face adhesive bonding effect on the mixed-mode fracture strength of PMMA

Abstract Experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to evaluate the effect of adhesive bonding of crack surfaces on the mixed-mode (I and II) fracture strength and effective stress intensity geometry/loading factor of a plate with an edge crack. The experimental tests were carried out on five batches of simple edge crack and specimens in which adhesive bonding was used on crack faces at different distances from the crack tip. The cracked specimens made from poly methyl-methacrylate rectangular plates. The specimens’ fracture strength was obtained by employing a tensile testing machine at different loading angles using a modified Arcan fixture. In the numerical part, finite element simulations were used to model the test specimens and thereby establishing their stress intensity geometry/loading factors. The results show that the adhesive bonding of the crack surfaces has a significant effect on reducing the equivalent mixed-mode stress intensity factor for all loading angles. The bonded specimens show considerable fracture force enhancement compared to the simple edge crack specimens.