THE FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF ADHESIVE JOINTS

The fatigue performance of structural adhesives suitable for bonding t hermoplastic and thermosetting composites, and metals, was studied by relating the maximum applied strain energy release rate to the rate of crack growth through the adhesive layer. The influence of parameters such as the specimen displacement ratio, frequency of loading and envi ronment were studied. Also, a model has been proposed which uses the m aterial constants obtained from the experimental fatigue darn to predi ct theoretically the service life of other types of bonded joints. Res ults from the proposed model were in good agreement with experimental results.