Experimental Adhesive Failure Criteria

for Analysis of Structures

Reek Jyoti Hati

SC15B115
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Adhesive - A substance applied to one surface or both so
that they bind together and resist the attempt of separation.

 Sometimes we can use adhesives instead of mechanical

fastening, thermal binding etc. for joining two surfaces.

 In some specific cases – More efficient, cost effective .

 Types – Reactive & Non reactive, Synthetic & Natural

 Criteria for Using - i) Must be able to wet surfaces

ii) Must be dried / hardened quickly
iii) Able to transmit load from one to another surface
How actually adhesive bonds formed -

 Chemical Bonding between adhesive & surface

 Sometimes electrostatic forces hold the surfaces together.

 In some cases van-der-waals force is the cause of bonding.

 Moisture aided diffusion of hardened adhesive into the substrate

surface .

 Surface energy of the substrate should be greater than surface

energy of the adhesive.
 Plasma activation, flame treatment are some of the surface
activation processes.
 Most important - Analysis of failure criteria of adhesives
 Mainly two types of failure –
 i) Cohesive fracture - Crack propagates in the bulk polymer
which constitutes the adhesive.

 ii) Interfacial Fracture - Debonding occurs between the adhesive

and the adherend.

We have to know the failure mode and Elastic properties of

hardened Adhesive
 Arcan Test Fixture is used to test the adhesive.

 This specimen type allows drawing a failure line for each

specific adhesive.
 First Thing – Finding Elastic Modulus
The production fixture for Elastic Modulus testing is made of
Aluminium (AA2024 T6).

 It is a box that has two plates and a casting mold in the

middle. This set up is cheap and gives good results.

Tensile Test carried out.

 Displacement is measured using a digital image correlation
equipment - DIC .
 Strain can be calculated easily from displacement data

 Stress we can get from the testing machine.

 Young’s Modulus can be calculated easily.

There are variations at different trials.

 There are many sources of errors like- air entrapment in the
adhesive in the time of drying, surface dimensions mismatch
due to which this variations occurred.
Making of Failure Envelop
 Arcan Type fixture is used

 It was decided to use an adhesive layer of 20x20x0.5 mm.

 Substrate is made of Aluminium . Manufacturing process is Water

Jet cutting method.

 Clearances are reduced between substrate and grip.

 It is done for three cases –
 i) For only shear on adhesive
 ii) For only tensile stress on adhesive
 iii) For stress (Traction) acting at 45 degree.
The results are tabulated here –
 Using the maximum values and minimum Values of Pure
tensile, pure shear and stress at 45 degree, Failure envelop is
created.
 I have reproduced the similar result- ( envelop for average
and weighted average are also plotted.)
 Only three pints are used to fit. If we do more tests at
different angles, more points we can get and the envelop
will be more accurate.

 It is difficult to understand with certainty the real value

for this parameter but, in order to realize a
computational study, for example, of the Arcan test, it
would be necessary to understand the influence of this
parameter on the simulations and evaluate if further test
would be necessary.
Applications of Adhesive
 Used in electronics industry specially in
chip making.
 Sometimes used to make lap joint, butt
joint etc.
 Sometimes used to make Bio-Medical
implant structures.
 Extensively used in making of lab scale
equipment.