ON THE DETERMINATION OF FRACTURE ENERGY USING THE PEEL TEST

This paper presents an improved model for the prediction of the adhere nd plastic dissipation in the peel test, thereby allowing the determin ation of the critical fracture energy. The model, which is based on ea rlier work, takes into account the effects of adhesive shear stresses, and a bilinear stress-strain response for the flexible adherend. Trea ting the flexible adherend as a beam-on-elastic foundation, expression s for the normal and shear foundation constants due to the compliance at the root of the adherend under elastic-plastic loading are derived using the deformation theory of plasticity. Application of the model t o experimental peel data shows that it gives an improved estimate of t he critical fracture energy.