Progressive Damage in Adhesive Layer in a Composite-Patched Metallic Plate with Inclined Crack Subjected to Fatigue Loading

Extended Finite element method (XFEM) and Cohesive Zone Method (CZM) were used to analyze the progressive damage in the adhesive layer of an aluminum plate with initial inclined crack that is strengthened using an adhesively bonded composite patch, in order to increase it’s fatigue life. The progressive damage of the adhesive that results in deboning of the patch from the strengthened plate was modeled using a user-defined subroutine in Abaqus. The results were compared with that’s obtained from models that do not include damage in the adhesive layer. It was concluded that the damage in this layer id dependent on the material properties of the adhesive and patch lay-up sequence. Besides, neglecting the damage in adhesive layer can lead to an overestimated fatigue life for the patched plate, up to ۲۳ percent.

Keywords:

_crack , damage , FRP , CZM , XFEM