Influence of plasticity on the fatigue lifetime prediction of adhesively bonded joints using the stress-life approach

The use of adhesive bonding for designing lightweight load-bearing components has increased in recent decades. In this paper the influence of plasticity on the lifetime prediction of bonded joints using the stress-life approach was investigated. The adhesive was a toughened epoxy for structural applications. Stress calculations were performed using finite element analysis. Three material models were employed, a linear-elastic model and two elastoplastic models: Von Mises (pressure independent) and Drucker–Prager (pressure dependent). Effective stress was calculated using the theory of critical distances. Lifetime predictions were based on SN curves from literature for scarf and single-lap joints at four different temperatures (?35, ?10?°C, RT, +50?°C). The material properties were acquired from uniaxial tensile quasi-static experiments on bulk adhesive specimens. These experiments showed a reduction in the values of Young’s modulus and yield stress with increasing temperature. A model was proposed based on an Arrhenius-type equation in order to fit the yield stress as a function of temperature. The model showed good agreement to the experimental findings. Regarding lifetime predictions (a) the influence of critical distance was higher for single-lap joints than scarf joints and (b) the prediction errors were lower for elastoplastic modelling than linear-elastic modelling, especially for single-lap joints.