Predicting the Fatigue Life of Adhesively-Bonded Joints

Abstract The fatigue behaviour of adhesively-bonded joints, which consisted of an epoxy-film adhesive bonding fibre-composite substrates, has been studied. Using a double-cantilever beam specimen, the rate of crack growth per cycle has been measured as a function of the maximum strain-energy release rate, Gmax. These data have then been modelled, and used to predict the fatigue lifetime of bonded single-lap joints. The agreement between the theoretical predictions and experimental results for the fatigue behaviour of the single-lap joints was found to be excellent.