Stochastic fatigue failure prediction of adhesive bonded joints

Abstract

This work describes the implementation of the Extended Finite Element Method (a partition of unity finite element method) for the study of fatigue failure of adhesive bonded joints when subjected to variable loading. The main advantage of the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is the independence of the finite element mesh to describe the delamination hence, it eliminates the need of re-meshing when the delamination front is propagated. This advantage is particularly useful when modeling delamination under fatigue as no remeshing is needed for each loading cycle. Also in this work, the Extended Finite Element Method is extended to include incompatible elements, with the addition of internal degrees of freedom that allow nonlinear mathematical distortion of a four node bilinear element. These elements are used to model a composite double cantilever beams to study fatigue delamination due to fatigue under random loading. The Yang- Manning’s stochastic model for fatigue delamination was modified and good agreement with experimental data was observed.