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Strength Degradation of Adhesively

Bonded Single-Lap Joints in a CyclicTemperature Environment Using a
Cohesive Zone Model
a

P. Hu , Z. W. Shi , X. X. Wang , W. D. Li , S. G. Zhou & X. Han

a

Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, School of

Automotive Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis
for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian,
P.R. China
Accepted author version posted online: 30 Oct 2014.Published
online: 17 Dec 2014.

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To cite this article: P. Hu, Z. W. Shi, X. X. Wang, W. D. Li, S. G. Zhou & X. Han (2015) Strength
Degradation of Adhesively Bonded Single-Lap Joints in a Cyclic-Temperature Environment Using a
Cohesive Zone Model, The Journal of Adhesion, 91:8, 587-603, DOI: 10.1080/00218464.2014.915754
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00218464.2014.915754

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The Journal of Adhesion, 91:587603, 2015

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0021-8464 print=1545-5823 online
DOI: 10.1080/00218464.2014.915754

Strength Degradation of Adhesively Bonded

Single-Lap Joints in a Cyclic-Temperature
Environment Using a Cohesive Zone Model

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P. HU, Z. W. SHI, X. X. WANG, W. D. LI, S. G. ZHOU, and X. HAN

Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, School of Automotive Engineering, State
Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of
Technology, Dalian, P.R. China

Adhesively bonded joints are widely used in automotive industry.

Adhesively bonded joints permit to have more uniform stress
distributions, join complex shapes, and reduce the weight of the
structures. The requirement to reduce the weight of automobiles
is also increasing the application of composites. In this article,
CFRP (carbon fiber-reinforced plastics) composite was used in
experimental tests. In many cases, adverse environments cause
non-negligible degradation in joints mechanical performance. So
a combined experimentalnumerical approach was developed to
characterize the effect of cyclic-temperature environment on
adhesively bonded joints. Experimental tests were carried out on
single-lap joints with CFRP and steel adherend in a cyclictemperature environment. A cohesive zone model was taken into
consideration to predict the results observed during the experimental
tests and an environmental degradation model was developed.
Scanning electron microscopy was utilized to investigate the
fracture surfaces.
KEYWORDS Cfrp composite; Cohesive zone model; Environmental degradation model; Finite element analysis; Scanning electron
microscopy; Single-lap joints

Received 25 February 2014; in final form 14 April 2014.

Address correspondence to W. D. Li, Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics,
School of Automotive Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial
Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Ling gong Road, Dalian 116024, P.R.
China. E-mail: liweidong@dlut.edu.cn
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.
tandfonline.com/gadh.
587

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P. Hu et al.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Due to the increasing demand for energy-efficient vehicles, there is an
increasing need to design lightweight structures such as aircraft and vehicle
body frames. On this account, the application of carbon fiber-reinforced
plastic (CFRP) composites has been increasing in automotive and aeronautical industry, because of their excellent characteristics of specific strength and
stiffness. The problem of bonding dissimilar materials emerges, such as steel
and CFRP [13].
The adhesive bonding technique which is regarded as a potential technology is now widely used in the automotive industry due to its advantages
over other traditional jointing methods such as welded, riveted, and bolted
joints. Compared with the mechanically fastened joints, adhesively bonded
joints have a more uniform stress distribution, better fatigue properties, and
can keep the integrity of the adherend materials [4, 5]. They can also reduce
the weight and the cost of the structures. The adhesive bonding technique
is now being used as a fast and an effective process to connect dissimilar
materials.
The major concern in adhesively bonded joints that severely inhibits a
more widespread use is their long-term durability in hostile environments,
such as extreme temperature, humid conditions, and organic solvents. When
exposed to hostile environments for long time, typically structural adhesives
lose mechanical strength rapidly in the initial period and the rate of degradation levels off after a certain exposure period [6, 7]. Researchers have paid great
attention to the environmental effect on adhesively bonded joints. Liljedahl
et al. [8] investigated composite and dissimilar substrate joints exposed
to humid environments and modelled the environmental degradation of
adhesively bonded joints using a cohesive zone model (CZM) approach.
Banea et al. [9] discussed the temperature effects on Mode I fracture toughness
of adhesive joints through experimentalnumerical methods. Adamss
research showed that thermal stresses coupled with external loads influence
the mechanical behavior of adhesive joints [3]. Datla et al. [10] investigated
the effects of test temperature and humidity on the mixed-mode fatigue behaviour of a toughened adhesive aluminium joint through experiments. Results
showed that the temperature and humidity of the test environment were found
to have a significant effect on the mixed-mode fatigue behavior of aluminium
adhesive joints. From earlier studies, it was well testified that the mechanical
performance of adhesive joints may be adversely affected when exposed to
aggressive environments, especially at an elevated temperature [11].
Researchers have achieved some positive results on the environmental
degradation of adhesively bonded joints. But most work focus on the variation of adhesive mechanical properties at a certain level of hostile environment and few works focus on joints under extreme cyclic-temperature
environment after long-term exposure. In our previous works, the strength

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Effect of a Hot-Wet Environment

degradation of single-lap joints (SLJs) under cyclic-vibration-peel loading [12]

and a hot-wet environment sustained load [13] was researched. In this article,
an experimentalnumerical approach was developed to determine the
environment-dependent cohesive properties of SLJs subjected to a cyclictemperature environment. A triangle traction-separation response of a CZM,
implemented through the finite element method (FEM) package ABAQUS1=
Standard (Dassault Systemes Simulia Corp., Providence, RI, USA) and
MATLAB1 (MathWorks Corp., Natick, MA, USA) programming, respectively,
was utilized to simulate the joints progressive damage and environmental
degradation process. The experimental and numerical results were compared
to see the reliability of CZM used on SLJs. An environmental degradation
model (EDM) was developed to acquire the mechanical properties of the
adhesive layer after a certain cyclic-temperature exposure. The progressive
damage processes in adhesive layer were investigated. The scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) was utilized to investigate the fracture surfaces.

2. EXPERIMENTS
2.1. Materials
Three different materials have been considered for the fabrication of the SLJs,
i.e., CFRP and steel for the substrates and a structural adhesive Araldite1
AV138 (Huntsman Advanced Materials, The Woodlands, TX, USA) for the
adhesive. The CFRP was provided by Dalian XingKe Carbon Fiber CO.,
LTD (Dalian, China). The composite panels were composed of nine layers
and the plies angle from the first ply to the ninth ply was 0=90=0=90=0=
90=0=90=0. Only the orthotropic elastic behavior was considered for the
CFRP, since no plastic deformation of this material was observed. The elastic
properties of CFRP are shown in Table 1 according to the manufacturers data.
The subscripts (1, 2, 3) in Table 1 present 1fibers direction, 2transverse
direction, and 3thickness direction, respectively. The thickness of composite panels was 2.7 mm.
The Cr. D carbon structural steel was utilized in the experiments, and its
mechanical properties are shown in Table 2 according to the manufacturers
data. The substrates of steel were cut from a bulk plate using a wire-cut
electrical discharge machine DK 7750 to the final precise dimensions,
100 mm  25 mm  1.5 mm (the steel plate thickness). The dimensions of
the CFRP specimen were the same as the steel specimen, and the CFRP panels
TABLE 1 Orthotropic Elastic Properties of the CFRP Adherends
E1(GPa)
120.4

E2(GPa)

E3(GPa)

t12

t13

t23

G12(GPa)

G13(GPa)

G23(GPa)

73.8

73.8

0.35

0.3

0.3

19.9

15.2

15.2

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TABLE 2 Mechanical Properties of the Cr. D Q235 Steel
Property

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Youngs modulus, E (GPa)

Poissons ratio, t
Tensile yield strength (MPa)
Tensile failure strength (MPa)
Tensile failure strain (%)

Cr. D Q235 steel

206.00
0.30
235.00
428.00
32.00

were cut by a WEILISHI1 (Shanghai, China) Metal Band Saw Machine

GW4028B. A structural brittle, two-component epoxy adhesive Araldite1
AV138 (Huntsman Advanced Materials, The Woodlands, TX, USA) was
utilized in the experiments. The properties of adhesive were characterized
in previous works [5, 14] and are shown in Table 3, which were used to
simulate the stress distributions of the SLJ adhesive layer and construct the
triangular cohesive law in the FEM.

2.2. Joint Fabrication

Unbalanced adhesive joints have been widely used to connect dissimilar
materials in auto industries. An unbalanced CFRP-steel SLJ was fabricated in
the experiments, and Fig. 1 represents the detailed joint geometry of the SLJ
(dimension in mm). Before joining, all substrate surfaces were prepared based
on the intrinsic characteristics of the materials. The steel bonding surfaces
were polished by manual abrasion with 360 grit sandpaper and degreased
with acetone to wipe off the greasy dirt and oxide layer on the substrate surfaces. The CFRP bonding surfaces were only degreased with acetone to prevent introducing micro cracks in the CFRP plate edges. A 0.2 mm spacer under
the upper substrate was used to ensure the adhesive layer thickness of SLJs,
and the pressure on the SLJs was exerted through grips. The fabricated
SLJ specimens were cured for 1 hr at a temperature of 60 C in a Kexin1
(Changchun, Jilin, China) heating chamber. The cured specimens were used
TABLE 3 Mechanical Properties of Adhesive Araldite1 AV138
Property
Youngs modulus, E (GPa)
Poissons ratio, t
Tensile yield strength (MPa)
Tensile failure strength (MPa)
Tensile failure strain (%)
Shear modulus, G (GPa)
Shear yield strength (MPa)
Shear failure strength (MPa)
Shear failure strain (%)

AV138
4.89  0.81
0.35
36.49  2.47
39.45  3.18
1.21  0.10
1.56  0.01
25.1  0.33
30.2  0.4
7.8  0.7

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591

FIGURE 1 Detailed geometry of the single-lap joint (dimension in mm).

to conduct the cyclic-temperature environmental tests one week after

fabrication for sufficient curing.

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2.3. Cyclic-Temperature Exposure

An Angelantoni1 (Massa Martana, Italy) SU600C temperaturehumidity
environmental chamber (733 mm  850 mm  895 mm) was used to simulate
the real temperature environmental variations in vehicle service conditions.
The cyclic-temperature condition in this current work is shown in Fig. 2 considering the limiting temperatures of vehicle service conditions. The temperature cycle utilized was defined as: maximum temperature 80 C; minimum
temperature 30 C; cycle period 2 hr. The experiment was divided into nine
groups and every group had eight samples. Group 1, which did not experience the cyclic-temperature degradation, was used as a comparison set, and
the other eight groups were suspended freely and evenly in an environmental
chamber to experience cyclic-temperature treatment. The exposed specimens
were taken out sequentially every 84 temperature cycles as a group, with a
maximum amount of 672 cycles. The relative humidity in the chamber was
controlled between 10% and 20% to minimize the humidity influence on
the experimental results [8, 15]. The quasi-static tests were carried out after

FIGURE 2 Cycle of the cyclic-temperature experiment.

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environmental treatment in a Kexin1 (Changchun, Jilin, China) WDW-100

universal testing machine with a 100 kN load cell, at room temperature and
under displacement control of 2.0 mm=min. At least six valid results were
obtained for each group.

3. MODELLING

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3.1. Static Modelling

A finite element model (FEM), shown in Fig. 3, was developed in the commercial FEM package ABAQUS1 to simulate the quasi-static test results and predict
the SLJ strength degradation under cyclic-temperature environment. The finite
element method analysis was carried out using non-linear geometrical considerations with material properties depicted in Section 2. Eight-node linear brick,
incompatible modes elements (C3D8I) were used for the steel because they do
not make spurious modes of deformation compared to eight-node linear brick
elements (C3D8 R). Eight-node quadrilateral in-plane general-purpose continuum shell elements (SC8 R) were used for CFRP. Continuum shell elements
are three-dimensional stress elements for use in modelling structures that are
generally slender, with a shell like response but continuum element topology.
In solving the problems of thick shell, the continuum shell elements are more
accurate than conventional shell elements [24]. In order to study the progressive damage in the adhesive, eight-node three-dimensional cohesive elements
(COH3D8) with the triangle traction-separation law were utilized. The triangle
CZM traction-separation law has been widely used to model the stress distribution, the fracture propagation in the adhesive layer, and revealed accurate
predictions of experimental data [5, 8, 1619]. Moreover, the boundary and
loading conditions were introduced to faithfully model the real testing conditions, consisting in an encastred constraint at the end of the steel substrate

FIGURE 3 Finite element mesh for single-lap joint.

Effect of a Hot-Wet Environment

593

and a transverse displacement and rotation at the other end of CFRP substrate,
Uy Uz 0 and URx URy URz 0, respectively. A higher mesh density was
used near the overlap area, shown in Fig. 3, to obtain more accurate results.
The size of the cohesive elements was 0.2 mm  0.5 mm  1 mm. A small level
of viscous damping factor (1E5 Ns=mm) was utilized in the constitutive equation of the cohesive elements to avoid possible numerical instability when the
simulation procedure was close to catastrophic failure [16]. Finally the simulation process was implemented within the ABAQUS1 CAE suite, and the results
are discussed in the following sections.

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3.2. Cohesive Zone Model

The CZM is developed based on a relationship between stresses and relative
displacements connecting initially superimposed nodes of the cohesive elements, to simulate the elastic behavior up to a peak load and subsequent
softening, and to model the gradual degradation of material properties up
to complete failure [5]. The CZM combines a strength failure criterion to predict the damage initiation and a fracture mechanics criterion to determine the
crack propagation in the adhesive layer. In this work, a mixed-mode triangle
traction-separation CZM law including mode I (normal separation), mode II
(shear separation), and mode III (shear separation) was adopted to model
the adhesive damage initiation and propagation in SLJs. The triangle
traction-separation law assumes an initial linear elastic behavior followed
by a linear damage evolution as shown in Fig. 4.
The CZM law includes three defining parameters: the initial stiffnesses
corresponding to the Youngs and shear modulus, the tripping tractions
related to the stresses of each mode where the adhesive damage initiates,
the fracture energies equal to the area of each mode under the tractionseparation laws, and two predicting criteria: damage initiation criterion and
crack propagation criterion, respectively. Table 4 shows the calibrated CZM

FIGURE 4 Mixed-mode triangle traction-separation law.

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TABLE 4 Calibrated Traction-Separation Response for AV138

Parameter

AV138

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Initial stiffnessmode I=mode II=mode (MPa)

Tripping tractionmode I=mode II=mode (MPa)
Fracture energymode I=mode II= mode (kJ=m2)
Initiation criterion
Propagation criterion

4890=1560=1560
27.50=15.80=15.80
0.30=0.57=0.57
Quadratic stress criterion
Quadratic energetic criterion

parameters and the criteria introduced in ABAQUS1 for the simulation of

damage growth in the adhesive layer [14, 2022], where I, II, and III represent
the normal and shear components, respectively. In this article, it is assumed
that the mode II and mode III properties are identical.
Damage initiation can be specified through different criteria. It is
assumed that the damage initiation criterion depends on the current
traction{tI, tII or tIII}. As is shown in Fig. 4, the damage initiation depends on
the current traction in the adhesive layer and a quadratic stress criterion is
defined by


tI
TIC

2 
 

tII 2
tIII 2

1;
TIIC
TIIIC

where the Macaulay bracket, <>, signifies that the compressive stress does
not contribute to damage initiation and TIC, TIIC, TIIIC are the tripping tractions
of each mode. After the peak traction value in Fig. 4, a linear softening stage
continues. Complete separation of the adhesive layer is determined by a
quadratic energetic criterion as defined in Equation (2).
 2 
 

GI
GII 2
GIII 2

1;
2
GIC
GIIC
GIIIC
in which GI, GII, and GIII are the energies released by the traction due to the
respective separation in normal and shear directions, respectively. GIC, GIIC,
and GIIIC are the fracture energies of each mode.

3.3. Environmental Degradation Model

An environmental degradation factor Deg was developed in a previous work
to represent the cyclic-temperature influence on adhesively bonded joint
strength [22]. The utilized environment degradation factor Deg provided
accurate approximation of the experimental results. The environmental
degradation factor Deg varies from 1 to 0, signifying the degradation process
in the adhesive layer. When Deg is 1 and 0, the adhesive layer correspond to
the initial condition and total failure, respectively. Deg was expressed in

Effect of a Hot-Wet Environment

595

Equation (3).

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Degk

Pk
;
P1

where P1 was the peak load that was not exposed to cyclic-temperature
environment, and Pk was the peak load of group k specimens which
had experienced 84  (k  1) (k 1  9) cycles in the cyclic-temperature
environment.
The key parameters in the CZM modelling that affect the adhesive behavior
include the fracture energies, the tripping tractions, and the initial stiffnesses.
Based on previous experimental work by Hu and Liljedahl [22, 23], it was
assumed for simplicity that all the three material properties are degraded equally
by being multiplied by Deg. An EDM was developed in Equation (4).
GiCk GiC  Degk
TiCk TiC  Degk ;
Eik Gi  Degk

i I ; II ; III

where k 1  9 represents group k specimens. The representative degradation

process for a triangular traction-separation response CZM is illustrated in Fig. 5.
It is shown that certain environmental degradation factor Deg leads to a

FIGURE 5 Environmental degradation of cohesive element properties.

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significant change in the triangular traction-separation response. The initial

stiffnesses of the adhesive and the tripping tractions become smaller compared
to initial data. The overall area under the triangle curve (i.e., the fracture energy)
decreases distinctly.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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4.1. Experiment Results

Quasi-static tests for the joints after environmental treatment were carried
out. In order to minimize the influence of bending stresses caused by the
imbalanced SLJ specimens, two alignment tabs with the same thickness to
the substrates, steel, and CFRP, were attached to both fixed ends of the specimens as shown in Fig. 6. The fracture of all joints occurred at the adhesive
layer exhibiting a cohesive failure is shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen, both
Fig. 7(a) specimens that were untreated and Fig. 7(b) specimens exposed to
cyclic-temperature for 672 cycles had a cohesive failure. However, as shown
in Fig. 7(b), the steel substrate that has a very thin adhesive layer in the zone of
red box shows that the SLJs failure has a trend to go a cohesive failure to a
mixed failure because of long-term cyclic-temperature exposure.
The experimental SLJ peak loads of each group obtained from the output
of the universal testing machine are summarized in Table 5. The peak loads
were the average of six valid data of each group. As can be seen, the SLJ peak
loads decreased gradually along with the exposed time increasing. The peak
loads decreased quickly at the beginning of the experiments and dropped

FIGURE 6 Quasi-static tests on WDW-100 universal testing machine.

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FIGURE 7 Fracture pattern transformation of single-lap joints. (a) 0 cycle and (b) 672 cycles.

slowly at the end. It was concluded that the largest reduction of the peak loads
was 5.61%. Due to the strict production process of SLJs and precise parameter
control of cyclic-temperature environment experiments, the variation of peak
loads, (standard deviation=mean)  100%, of each group specimens was
always less than 1.2%. On the basis of Equation (3) and experiment data,
the variation processes of Deg for AV138 bonded SLJs are tabulated in Table 5.
Based on the experimental results of environmental degradation factor
Deg in Table 5, the Deg as a function of cyclic-temperature cycle amount
was determined to understand the effects of cyclic-temperature exposure period on the corresponding Deg response. Taking N as the cyclic-temperature
cycle amount, the environmental degradation factor Deg was obtained
through a MATLAB1-programme-fitting and Deg given as

1=133
;
Deg 0:004N 0:5832 1

where N (0 N  672) is the cyclic-temperature cycle amount. The numerical

degradation factor Deg was compared with the experimental results. The
correlation coefficient r2 was 0.9763, and the agreement was reasonably
good as shown in Fig. 8. Equation (5) can be the empirical formula of the
TABLE 5 Peak Loads and the Deg of Experimental Specimens
Group
Cycle amount
Peak loads (N)
Deg

0
5851
1

84
5761
0.984

168
5667
0.972

252
5634
0.963

336
5593
0.956

420
5564
0.951

504
5547
0.948

588
5535
0.946

672
5523
0.944

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FIGURE 8 Experimental and numerical cyclic-temperature environmental degradation

factor Deg.

cyclic-temperature environment degradation factor with limits for the

adhesive AV138.

4.2. Numerical Modelling Results

The adhesive layer was modelled as a triangle traction-separation CZM law,
and the specific modelling approach was elaborated in Section 3. As opposed
to Deg, a parameter SDEG, defined as the scalar damage variable in ABAQUS1
terminology, corresponds to the stiffness degradation of the adhesive layer,
with SDEG 0 relating to undamaged and SDEG 1 to total failure [5, 24].
Figure 9 shows the representative failure process in the bond line of the
SLJs bonded with AV138 adhesive, including the damage initiation Fig. 9(a),
crack propagation Fig. 9(b) and the total failure case Fig. 9(c). Because of
the three-dimensional simulation model, the adhesive layer was taken out
solely to conveniently observe the interior stresses and damage process. As
can be seen in Fig. 9(a), fracture initiated at the overlap edge closer to the
CFRP substrate side. Figure 9(b) shows the crack propagation process from
the edges to the inner region with fast propagation. As can be seen in
Fig. 9(c) (complete failure), the steel substrate presents residual plasticity
stresses because the steel yield strength in the experiments is less than the
SLJ failure strength, so the SLJ has not been damaged when plastic deformation occurs in steel. The SLJ experimental and simulated peak load was also compared. The experimental SLJ peak loads were obtained from the output of the
universal testing machine, while the simulated SLJ peak loads were calculated
from the reaction force (RF) data of the nodes at the fixed end of the substrate.
As shown in Fig. 9(d), the maximum RF is in the fixed steel substrate end by an

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599

FIGURE 9 Failure process in the adhesive layer of SLJ bonded with AV138 adhesive: (a)
fracture initiated at the overlap edge closer to the CFRP substrate side; (b) crack propagation
to inner regions; (c) complete failure case; (d) the maximum RF at the fixed end of steel
substrate.

encastre constraint. A simulation, which considered the equivalent boundary

conditions and displacement conditions to the experiments to model the
experiments, was executed. The fracture process and the maximum RFs are
shown in Fig. 9(a)9(d). The experimental SLJ average peak load was
5851 N shown in Table 5 (no temperature cycling), while the simulated SLJ
peak load was 5923 N. The simulated SLJ peak load matched well with the
experimental SLJ peak load only with a relative error of 1.23%. The CZM
modelling utilized in this work proved to be consistent with the real peak load
that occurred in SLJs and feasible to predict the damage propagation and
stress state in SLJs.

4.3. Strength Prediction

According to the experimental work in Section 2 and the experimental results
in Section 4.1, the tensile strength of the SLJs bonded with adhesive AV138
decreased along with the exposure time in the cyclic-temperature environment. Adhesives that are used widely in vehicles also have similar problems.

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Accurately predicting the bonded joints tensile strength in the cyclictemperature environment has a profound significance.
An EDM was developed in Section 3.2 to predict the tensile strength of
the adhesively bonded joints. The environmental degradation factor Deg
signifies the stiffness degradation level, with Deg 1 relating to nondegraded material and Deg 0 relating to the complete degradation. The tensile strength of each group can be predicted through the environmental
degradation factor Deg in Table 5 and the EDM model in Equation (4).
Through the environmental degradation factor Deg in Table 5 for different cycle amounts and the EDM model in Equation (4), a degraded set of CZM
properties for every experimental group was introduced. The tensile strength
of SLJs bonded with adhesive AV138 was predicted and compared with the
experimental peak loads as presented in Fig. 10, with a numerical tendency
to show the joint strength variation trend. As can be seen in Fig. 10, the
EDM modelling technique utilized for adhesive AV138 provided an accurate
prediction of the experimental results. The tensile strength decreased rapidly
at the beginning and showed a decreasing trend with a smaller gradient as the
temperature cycles increases.

4.4. Fracture Surface SEM Investigation

SEM was utilized to investigate the fracture surfaces of SLJs bonded with
AV138 before and after cyclic-temperature environment exposure treatments.
The SEM results of fracture surfaces are shown in Fig. 11, obtained from a
FEI1 (Hillsboro, OR, USA) Quanta 200 microscope. As can be seen in
Fig. 11, the bright zone is the adhesive, and the dark one is the zone close
to the substrate materials.

FIGURE 10 Experimental and predicted SLJ peak loads as a function of CT cycle amount for
adhesive AV138.

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601

FIGURE 11 Fracture surfaces from SEM of representative adhesively bonded joints bonded
with: AV138 before (a), (b) and after (c), (d) cyclic-temperature environment treatments.

The fracture surfaces from SEM of representative adhesively bonded

joints bonded with AV138: before and after 672 cycles of cyclic-temperature
treatments are shown in Fig. 11(a)11(d). Figure 11(a) and 11(c) shows the
steel substrates surfaces, and Fig. 11(b) and 11(d) are the CFRP substrates
surfaces. It is found that the micro distribution characteristics of the failure surfaces experience a significant transition, varying from fish scales distribution
of the residual adhesive on the substrates before cyclic-temperature exposure
to irregular accumulation of adhesive after. Figure 11 also shows that the
SLJs failure modes are cohesive before and after the 672 cycles in
cyclic-temperature environment. Nevertheless, some fracture surfaces have
transformed from cohesive failure to adhesive failure, such as the zone in
red boxes in Fig. 11(c) and 11(d). The fracture surfaces perform a typical
beehive-like surface with holes scattered over the residual adhesive layer.
The holes on the CFRP substrates residual layer are bigger than the holes
on the steel because of the different absorption ability of the adhesive.
The transition phenomenon provides an explanation from a micro-scale

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perspective for the SLJ strength degradation that was discussed earlier in
Section 4.1.

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5. CONCLUSIONS
The cyclic-temperature behavior of adhesively bonded joints was investigated
using both experimental and numerical approaches. A numerical model was
successfully developed using a cohesive zone approach with a triangle traction
separation response for the adhesive bond line. An EDM was developed to
determine the mechanical properties after the exposure in the cyclictemperature environment. Carefully designed experiments were carried out
to validate the simulation results with the CZM modelling and get the environmental degraded mechanical properties to predict the mechanical behavior
after cyclic-temperature exposure. The following conclusions can be drawn:
(a) The cyclic-temperature environment experiment is reliable because the
variation of peak loads, (standard deviation=mean)  100%, of each
group specimens was always less than 1.2%. The maximum reduction
of SLJ strength is 5.61%.
(b) Based on both load and displacement data from a static test, the numerical model CZM can properly predict the tensile strength and mechanical
behavior of SLJs bonded with adhesive AV138.
(c) After exposure in cyclic-temperature environment, the tensile strengths of
SLJs show a decreasing trend with smaller gradient as the temperature
cycle increases.
(d) The EDM modelling can effectively predict the mechanical behavior of
SLJs after exposure in the cyclic-temperature environment.
(e) The SEM was utilized to investigate the fracture surfaces. Significant
changes of the adhesive layer before and after cyclic-temperature
environment were observed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks are due to the referees for their valuable comments.

FUNDING
This work was funded by the Key Project of the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (no. 10932003, 11272075), 973 National Basic
Research Project of China (no. 2010CB832700, 2010CB736104) and 04
Great Project of Ministry of Industrialization and Information of China (no.
2011ZX04001-021). These supports are gratefully acknowledged.

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