ECCOMAS 2024

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Mechanical Behavior of Short Fiber Reinforced Adhesives

  • Hematipour, Maryam (Institute of Structural Analysis)
  • Dean, Aamir (Institute of Structural Analysis)
  • Scheffler, Sven (Institute of Structural Analysis)
  • Rolfes, Raimund (Institute of Structural Analysis)

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Structural adhesives, crucial in diverse applications, face major challenges particularly in wind energy industries. Rotor blade components are fabricated separately and then adhesively joined .The fact that cracks in the rotor blade structure, especially in the bonding line of the trailing edge, are causes of costly repairs and operational failures indicates that there are still knowledge gaps in the analysis and design of such structures. To take into account the complex loading conditions during the lifetime of a rotor blade and the manufacturing circumstances, adhesives have been developed to fulfill the specifications of the wind energy industry. These adhesives are composites made of high-viscous epoxy polymers reinforced with short fibers [1]. The mechanical performance of Short Fiber Reinforced Polymeric (SFRP) adhesives strongly depends on the orientation distribution of the fibers. The effect of fiber orientation on young’s modulus and tensile strength of SFRP composites was experimentally investigated in [2] and [3]. The current contribution focuses on the experimental material characterization (under tension, compression and shear loading) and numerical investigation of the static behavior of SFRP adhesives. For the material characterization purposes, SFRP adhesive plates were firstly manufactured. Specimens were then cut out from the fabricated plates using waterjet cutting in two different fiber orientations (0° and 90°). Finally, quasi-static tests were conducted for various loading conditions. Strain gauges and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) were used as measurement systems. Motivated from the progressive damage model developed in [4], and considering the elastic-plastic behavior of SFRP adhesives studied in [5], a finite-element framework for static failure analysis is introduced. In conclusion, the experimental and numerical results are presented, discussed, and compared.