A new cohesive element to model environmental degradation of adhesive joints in the rail industry

Abstract

This work studied the capability of structural adhesives to bond an aluminium rail used to assemble the seats inside the train. Scaled specimens of these joints were mechanically tested under a range of temperatures (−40 °C up to 80 °C) before and after ageing in distilled water in order to simulate real life conditions. A three-dimension numerical simulation was carried out to understand the magnitude of stresses present in the adherends and in the adhesive layer. A new cohesive element was developed using the finite element (FE) to predict the behaviour of an adhesive joint after environmental degradation. Experimental tests were carried out to assess the joint strength and the failure mechanism, experimentally. The model gave accurate results and was able to successfully predict cohesive failure of every joint that failed cohesively in the adhesive layer.

Mode-I Interlaminar Fracture Modeling of DCB Composite Laminate using Finite Element Techniques

“…In the CZM element based approach, the cohesive zone is defined as a thin layer placed between the two beams at the mid-plane of the DCB specimen [51]. The solid thin layer (0.02 mm) is defined using cohesive elements.…”