Prediction of brittle fracture of epoxy-aluminum flanging

Abstract

This paper presents a fracture mechanical approach for estimation of critical bending load of different types of aluminum-epoxy flanging and comparison with experimental measurements. For this purpose, several designs of the flanges were investigated. The flanges were glued to the epoxy bars and adhesive-epoxy interface was considered as a bi-material notch. Prediction of the failure is based on generalized stress intensity factor and generalized fracture toughness.

Keywords

• Generalized stress intensity factor
• Flanging
• FEM
• Bi-material interface
• Fracture mechanics