Numerical and experimental lifetime assessment of multi-material adhesively joined structures

Adhesive bonding in structural applications presents many challenges, especially when different substrate materials are combined. Mechanical behaviour is difficult to predict numerically, especially when time-varying properties are considered. This work will contribute to the SOA of structural modelling of bonded multi-material structures. It focuses on a mixed numerical/experimental analysis of the ageing behaviour of single lap samples. Regression models are used to estimate the influences of joint design on joint performance. The objective of the work is to improve the failure prediction of these combined structures (artificial and accelerated) when ageing is taken into account. For this purpose, a very close coupling between simulations and experiments is desired.