Composite Structures 95 (2013) 222–226

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Characterization of composite bonded joints under pure mode II fatigue loading

Maria V. Fernández, Marcelo F.S.F. de Moura ⇑, Lucas F.M. da Silva, António T. Marques
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An experimental investigation concerning adhesively bonded composite joints subjected to mode II fati-
Available online 3 August 2012 gue loading was performed in this work. End-Notched Flexure (ENF) tests with carbon/epoxy adherends
bonded with a ductile epoxy adhesive were used. The Paris-law which establishes a relationship between
Keywords: the fatigue crack growth rate and the variation of the energy release rate was applied. The energy release
Composites rate was estimated by means of an equivalent crack length method based on specimen compliance and
Bonded joints beam theory. The proposed method includes the effect of the adhesive on the specimen compliance and
Fatigue
overcomes the difficulty associated to crack length monitoring during the test, since the crack is not a
Mode II
End-Notched Flexure test
measured parameter but a calculated one. Additionally, the presence of a non-negligible fracture process
zone is accounted for, since the equivalent crack is estimated from the specimen compliance which is
influenced by the presence of the fracture process zone. This is a crucial issue, particularly when adhe-
sives with some ductility are used in fatigue tests. Several experimental ENF fatigue tests were performed
and consistent results were obtained. It was concluded that the proposed procedure is adequate for fati-
gue characterization of composite bonded joints under mode II loading.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction particularly important for structures designed with a safe-fail or

The ability to define and create more complex structures with
composite materials has gained importance in the last years, since
the application of composite materials in industry, such as the case
of marine, automotive, aeronautical and eolic blades, is growing.
Additionally, the use of carbon–epoxy composites is increasing in
applications where fatigue loading is frequent, like eolic blades,
cars (especially Formula (1)) and airplanes. As a result, a better
knowledge of the joining techniques and the performance of the
joints are becoming more important. Among the several joining
techniques, adhesively bonded joints emerge as the most effective.
The main advantages of bonded joints are structural efficiency
with no weight penalty and the capacity to join dissimilar materi-
als [1,2]. They are characterized by more uniform stress distribu-
tion than conventional techniques such as fastening or riveting.
Moreover, very efficient joints can be produced, if correct evalua-
tion of the loads during design is done [3]. In effect, bonded joints
have the possibility to be designed orienting the joint in order to
absorb the applied loading by shear stresses in the joint. Consider-
ing that some of the final applications, like wind blades or Formula
one cars, are subjected to cyclic loading and that this aspect consti-
tutes one of the major sources of failure (because it can occur even
at small loads) [4], a fatigue strength prediction method is then
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mfmoura@fe.up.pt (M.F.S.F. de Moura).
URL: http://www.fe.up.pt (M.F.S.F. de Moura).
damage tolerant method [5]. Consequently, a better understanding
of how a composite bonded joint behaves under fatigue loading
can improve designing tools and final properties of the joints by
focusing in the real milestones, like reliability and improved per-
formance. It is known [6] that composite adhesive joints can pres-
ent adhesive, cohesive, interlaminar failure, or a combination of
them. Usually, adhesive failure is due to improper surface prepara-
tion and can be avoided by changing the procedure. The other two
failure modes can occur in well conceived joints, depending on the
relation between properties of the materials involved.
One of the methods to analyze failure by fatigue loading is
based on Fracture Mechanics concepts [7]. It is usually based on
the Paris-law type that establishes a correlation between damage
evolution along the time and one fracture parameter (stress inten-
sity factor (K), strain energy release rate (G) or J-integral [2]), and it
is frequently known as the fatigue crack growth method (FCG)
method. This method can be seen as the correlation between the
rate of fatigue crack growth per cycle (da/dN where a represents
the crack length at a certain number of cycles N), and the change
of a selected fracture parameter over time. The plotted expression
of these two factors in a bi-logarithmic scale has a sigmoidal shape
that has been previously observed in studies of FCG in metals and
polymers [2,8]. Fig. 1 shows a typical propagation curve, where
three different regions can be easily identified [8]:
 Threshold region: below the fatigue threshold (Gth) the crack
growth tends to be zero.

0263-8223/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2012.07.031
 M.V. Fernández et al. / Composite Structures 95 (2013) 222–226
Fig. 1. Plot of the fatigue crack growth rate per cycle vs. the maximum strain
energy release rate.
 Linear region: where a linear growth in bi-logarithmic repre-
sentation is observed; in this stage the Paris relation (i.e., a
power law) or an adaptation of it (Eq. (1)) normally fits well.
 m
da DG
¼ C1 ð1Þ
dN Gc
This region emerges after the fatigue threshold, normally
107 mm/cycle [9], and below the fracture toughness of the
material. It is frequently a large region relative to the other
ones and thus assumed to characterize the material fatigue
properties.
 The third region starts when the crack propagation becomes
unstable and is characterized by its rapid and catastrophic
growth.
In fatigue–fracture characterization tests, only the second stage
of the plot is studied since the specimens have a pre-crack. Then, a
Paris power law is applied to the linear part of the bi-logarithmic
plot and the values of C1 and m are obtained by fitting the law ex-
pressed in Eq. (1) to the experimental curve [4]. The value of m rep-
resents the sensitivity of the crack to its growth; for adhesives it
tends to be higher than for metals [4].
A similar procedure was already performed in a previous work
[10] concerning mode I fatigue–fracture characterization consider-
ing the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB). A data reduction scheme
based on crack equivalent concept was used to overcome the diffi-
culties related to crack monitoring during the fatigue tests and ac-
count for the energy dissipated in the fracture process zone. The
authors have concluded that the method replicates better the real
state of the specimens during the fatigue tests relatively to alterna-
tive classical methods based on compliance calibration or beam
theory.
Fatigue/fracture characterization of bonded joints under mode
II loading has attracted much less attention by researchers. The
End-Notched Flexure (ENF) test is frequently used to perform static
fracture characterization under mode II loading owing to its sim-
plicity and well known behaviour. It consists of a three-point-
bending test on a specimen with a pre-crack, thus leading to shear
loading at the crack tip. This test was already widely applied with
success in the context of bonded joints fracture characterization
considering static loading [11–14]. The ENF test has also been ap-
plied to fatigue/fracture characterization of composite materials to
analyze interlaminar delamination of composite laminates under
mode II loading [15,16]. As a consequence of its success in the
referred applications, the ENF test was chosen to perform mode
II fatigue tests on carbon–epoxy bonded joints. The objective was
223
to evaluate and characterize composite bonded joints applying a
modified Paris-law as a function of energy release rate for mode
II loading (GII). The first step was to verify the adequacy of the test
for fatigue–fracture characterization. Subsequently, the Paris type
laws for the specimens presenting cohesive failure were obtained.
Finally, a global Paris law representative of the bonded joints fati-
gue behaviour was determined.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials and specimens
The ENF specimen (Fig. 2) consists of two composite beams par-
tially joined by an adhesive layer. The part of the specimen where
the beams are not bonded is the initial crack length (a0). Due to
specimen nonsymmetry, pure mode II loading conditions arise at
the crack tip, thus being well suited for shear testing of adhesives
provided that the specimen is designed so that the adherends de-
form elastically [17].
In this work, the ENF specimen (Fig. 2) was made with two
beams bonded with a 0.2 mm thick adhesive layer. Each beam
was prepared with 18 plies of unidirectional prepreg (CFRP – Car-
bon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) leading to an arm thickness of
2.7 mm. A ductile epoxy adhesive, Araldite 2015 manufactured
by Huntsman, was used. The properties of the bulk adhesive
(E = 1850 MPa and m = 0.3) and the adherends (Table 1) were
already defined by Campilho et al. [18].
The specimens’ dimensions were defined considering the spec-
imens already made for mode I fatigue–fracture characterization
(L = 90 mm, a0 = 45 mm, B = 25 mm) [10]. The bonded surfaces
were polished with sandpaper and cleaned with acetone. After, a
0.2 mm calibrated steel strip was inserted between the two speci-
men arms to guarantee the adhesive thickness. The next stage was
pouring the adhesive, assembling and holding it with pressure. The
cure of the adhesive was made at room temperature for five days.
Studies of Carlsson et al. [19] about the ENF static tests have
shown that the relationship a0 P 0.7L must be used to guarantee
stable crack growth. This relation applied to the present case leads
to a reduced distance between the crack tip and the central loading
point, i.e., 27 mm. Since the adhesive presents a ductile behaviour,
the referred distance could be insufficient to provide self-similar
crack growth, i.e., without having the spurious influences of the
central loading point that promote compressive stresses in the
neighbouring region. This phenomenon was already observed
experimentally for static tests [20] resulting in a spurious increase
of the R-curve that defines the fracture energy. This aspect should
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the ENF test. Specimen width is designated by B.
Table 1
CFRP elastic orthotropic properties for a unidirectional ply aligned in the 0° direction
[10].
Young’s modulus Poisson’s ratio Shear modulus
E1 = 1.09E + 05 MPa m12 = 0.34 G12 = 4315 MPa
E2 = 8819 MPa m13 = 0.34 G13 = 4315 MPa
E3 = 8819 MPa m23 = 0.38 G23 = 3200 MPa
224 M.V. Fernández et al. / Composite Structures 95 (2013) 222–226

the linear elastic region, this equation does not account for several
aspects that influence the load–displacement curve, like the pres-
ence of the adhesive and stress concentrations at the crack tip. In
order to include these effects indirectly the known, initial crack
length (a0) and compliance (C0) can be used to estimate an equiva-
lent modulus

3a30 þ 2L3
Ef ¼ 3
ð3Þ
8Bh C 0corr
being
3L
C 0corr ¼ C 0  ð4Þ
10G13 Bh
This procedure also takes into account the specificities of each spec-
imen, like variability of the mechanical properties that could be re-
lated to the manufacturing process.
During propagation, a damage zone develops ahead of the crack
tip which affects the specimen compliance. To take into account
Fig. 3. Setup used for the three-point bending test. the influence of the FPZ, an equivalent crack length should be de-
fined as a function of the current compliance using Eqs. (2)–(4)
   1=3
deserve special attention since an overestimation of material frac- C corr 3 2 C corr
ae ¼ a þ DaFPZ ¼ a0 þ  1 L3 ð5Þ
ture properties can lead to inaccurate design. In order to avoid this C 0corr 3 C 0corr
problem, the a0 = 0.5L configuration was considered. Although this
where
corresponds to an unstable arrangement, it provides a longer
length between the crack extremity and central loading point, thus 3L
C corr ¼ C  ð6Þ
increasing the possibility of self-similar crack growth without the 10G13 Bh
influence of any spurious effects.
Considering the equivalent crack and equivalent modulus, the
strain energy release rate in mode II can now be obtained combin-
2.2. Testing procedures
ing the Irwin–Kies equation

The cyclic fatigue loading of the ENF tests (Fig. 3) was made in a P2 dC
MTS servo-hydraulic machine with a frequency of 4 Hz, load ratio GII ¼ ð7Þ
2B da
(R) of 0.1 and with constant load amplitude. The maximum load
was 50% of the failure load (around 2000 N) that was defined pre- with Eq. (2),
viously by means of static tests. Considering that monitoring the 9P2 a2e
crack length is labor intensive and inaccurate, a data reduction GII ¼ 3
ð8Þ
scheme based on equivalent crack concept was used and validated.
16B2 Ef h
This methodology is quite effective. In fact, following this proce-
3. Data reduction scheme dure it is not necessary to monitor the crack length during the
course of the fatigue test and several aspects influencing the spec-
In a previous work [10], an analytical method based on beam imen behavior are indirectly taken into account, as is the case of
theory, specimen compliance and crack equivalent concept was the presence of the adhesive and the FPZ effect.
used to overcome the difficulties inherent to crack monitoring dur-
ing the fatigue–fracture mode I fracture characterization using the 4. Determination of the fatigue crack growth rate, da/dN
DCB tests. The method, named Compliance Based Beam Method
(CBBM), will also be applied in this work considering the ENF test The da/dN was calculated with the secant method recom-
[21]. The main idea is to use the beam theory to obtain the equa- mended by the standard ASTM E647 [9]. This method consists on
tion that relates the current compliance and the crack length. This evaluating the variation of the crack length as a function of the
equation can be used to estimate the equivalent crack length as a number of cycles considering a discrete number of measurements
function of the current compliance. In addition, this adhesive pre- (n) during the fatigue test. The crack growth rate between two con-
sents a ductile behavior which creates a fracture process zone (FPZ) secutive measurements (i and i + 1) (measurements made every
that is responsible for non-negligible amount of energy dissipation 100 cycles) is then evaluated with the relation given by
[21], which reflects on the load–displacement curve, i.e., on the  
specimen compliance. Since the CBBM uses the specimen compli- da ðaiþ1  ai Þ
¼ ð9Þ
ance to estimate the equivalent crack length, it accounts indirectly dN 
a ðN iþ1  Ni Þ
for the damaged zone and avoids the need to monitor the crack
length which requires stopping the test [10]. 1
¼
a ðaiþ1 þ ai Þ ð10Þ
Following the Timoshenko beam theory the equation of compli- 2
ance for the ENF becomes where i represents the ith measurement performed during the test
3a3 þ 2L3 3L (0 6 i 6 n). This gives an average value of the FCG rate in an incre-
C¼ 3
þ ð2Þ ment. The corresponding crack length for each GII is also the average
8E1 Bh 10G13 Bh
value of the limits of the increments (Eq. (10)). The applicability of
where the geometrical parameters are defined in Fig. 2 and E1 and this method was also tested in mode I (DCB) fatigue tests [10], and
G13 are the longitudinal and shear modulus, respectively. Even in linearity of crack growth rate in a bi-logarithmic representation of
 M.V. Fernández et al. / Composite Structures 95 (2013) 222–226 225

the Paris law type was achieved when the failure mode remained 120 0.012
constant along the specimen.
100 0.01
5. Results and discussion
ae=f(N)
80 0.008

C (mm/N)
5.1. Failure characterization

ae (mm)
C=f(N)
60 0.006
Several specimens were tested in fatigue, but only five present-
ing cohesive failure in the adhesive were considered for analysis 40 0.004
(Fig. 4). In these five cases, crack propagation occurred within
the adhesive which allows an adequate characterization of the 20 0.002
bonded joint fatigue behavior. The remaining specimens had man-
ufacturing problems like air bubbles or not enough strength of the 0 0
interface adhesive/adherend in result of improper surface prepara- 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
tion. The consequence was adhesive or mixed (adhesive and cohe- N (Number of cycles)
sive) failure which obviously affected drastically their fatigue
behavior. Fig. 5. Variation of the compliance (C) and the equivalent crack length (ae) as a
function of the number of cycles.

5.2. Crack growth

There is an obvious relation between the compliance and the ac-

0.100
tual damage of the specimen. From Fig. 5, it can be verified that 0.10 1.00
compliance is constant up to 11,000 cycles, after which an increas-
ing trend can be observed. The equivalent crack ae vs. N curve shows
a similar trend, since ae is calculated as a function of current com-
pliance, which is influenced by the materialization of damage. It
da/dN (mm/cycle) da/dN = 0.110(GIImax/GIIc)3.26
should be noted that the ae is a parameter which evaluates the evo- R2 = 0.80
lution of damage thus being higher than clear crack. In fact, the ini- 0.010
tial development of the FPZ at the crack tip affects the compliance
which reflects on the increase of ae, although a clear crack has not
yet propagated from the initial a0. From Fig. 5, it can also be seen
that, in general, the specimens performed around 6000 cycles
(approximately between 11,000 and 17,000 cycles in Fig. 5) of sta-
ble crack propagation, after which the compliance started to remain
constant and the crack arrested – third part of the ae = f(N) curve 0.001
which tends to a plateau. This is a spurious effect related with the GIImax/GIIc
approximation of the crack to the region influenced by the central
loading point. This region is naturally subjected to compressive Fig. 6. Example of the adjusted Paris law to a given ENF fatigue test.
loads, which hinders a self-similar crack growth. This means that
the analysis of the results must be stopped when the crack tip is
at a certain distance of the referred central point in order to avoid Table 2
spurious overestimations of the bonded joint fatigue behavior. Paris law constants of the validated specimens.

Specimen number C1 (mm/cycle) m

5.3. Fatigue crack growth rate
1 0.106 2.23
2 0.119 3.95
The fatigue crack growth (da/dN) as a function of energy ratio 3 0.127 2.74
(GIImax/GIIc) was determined considering the CBBM described in 4 0.111 3.52
5 0.110 3.26
Average 0.115 3.14
Std. Dev. 7.4% 21.4%

Fig. 4. Fracture surfaces of a bonded joint with cohesive failure.
Section 3. Power laws were fitted to establish the Paris law param-
eters and then a linear representation in a bi-logarithmic scale was
used for each specimen. Fig. 6 shows an example of the obtained
plot. Table 2 presents the constants of the Paris law for each spec-
imen that had cohesive failure and the resulting average law. From
Table 2 it can be verified that consistent results were obtained in
which concerns the constant C1. A larger scatter was obtained for
the parameter m that measures the sensitivity of the crack to its
growth. This issue can be explained by the unstable configuration
of the ENF test used. A general average law was determined and
applied to the results of all specimens in order to verify the accu-
racy of the procedure (Fig. 7). It was verified that the average global
law accurately represents the behavior of most of the specimens. It
can be concluded that the proposed methodology can successfully
226
1.E-01
da/dN = 0.115(GIImax/GIIc )3.14
da/dN (mm/cycle)
GIImax/GIIc
Fig. 7. Average Paris law adjusted to the results off all specimens.
define a Paris law representative of the bonded joints behavior un-
der mode II fatigue loading.
6. Conclusion
An experimental work concerning fatigue/fracture characteriza-
tion of composite carbon/epoxy bonded joints under mode II load-
ing was performed in this work. The End-Notched Flexure test was
used with the objective to determine the Paris law that character-
izes the fatigue behavior of the bonded joints. A data reduction
scheme based on equivalent crack concept, beam theory and spec-
imen compliance was used to determine the energy release rate
overcoming the difficulties inherent to crack monitoring during
the fatigue tests under mode II loading. Additionally, the proposed
method accounts indirectly for the presence of the adhesive and for
the non-negligible fracture process zone that influence both the
specimen compliance. The obtained results were consistent, thus
demonstrating that the procedure is adequate and suitable for
the fatigue/fracture characterization of bonded joints under mode
II loading.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology for supporting the work presented here
through the MIT-Portugal Program.
M.V. Fernández et al. / Composite Structures 95 (2013) 222–226
1.E-01 References
1.E+00
[1] da Silva Lucas FM, Öchsner A, Adams Robert D. Handbook of adhesion
technology. Springer; 2011.
[2] Ashcroft I, Shaw S. Mode I fracture of epoxy bonded composite joints 2. Fatigue
loading. Int J Adhes Adhes 2001;22(2):151–67.
1.E-02 [3] Baker A, Jones J. Bonded repair of aircraft structures. Martinus Nijhoff; 1988.
[4] Ashcroft I, Hughes D, Shaw S, Abdel-Wahab M, Crocombe A. Effect Of
temperature on the quasi-static strength and fatigue resistance of bonded
composite double lap joint. Int J Adhes Adhes 2001;75(1):61–88.
[5] Pirondi A, Moroni A. A progressive damage model for the prediction of the
fatigue crack growth in bonded joints. J Adhes 2010;5(86):501–21.
1.E-03 [6] Mall S, Kochhar NK. Characterization of debond growth mechanism in
adhesively bonded composites under model II static and fatigue loading. Eng
Fract Mech 1988;31(5):747–58.
[7] Pirondi A, Nicoletto G. Fatigue crack growth in bonded DCB specimens. Eng
Fract Mech 2004;71(4–6):859–71.
[8] Abou-Hamda M, Megahed M, Hammouda M. Fatigue crack growth in double
1.E-04 Cantilever beam specimen with an adhesive layer. Eng Fract Mech 1998;60(5–
6):605–14.
[9] E 647 Standard test method for measurement of fatigue crack growth rates.
ASTM; 2008.
[10] Fernández MV, de Moura MFSF, da Silva LFM, Marques AT. Composite bonded
joints under mode I fatigue loading. Int J Adhes Adhes 2011;31(5):280–5.
[11] Chai H, Mall S. Design aspects of the end-notch adhesive joint specimen
1988;36:R3–8.
[12] de Moura MFSF, Campilho RDSG, Gonçalves JPM. Pure mode II fracture
characterization of composite bonded joints. Int J Solids Struct
2009;46(6):1589–95.
[13] Leffler K, Alfredsson KS, Stigh U. Shear behaviour of adhesive layers. Int J Solids
Struct 2007;44(2):530–45.
[14] da Silva LFM, de Magalhães FACRG, Chaves FJP, de Moura MFSF. Mode II
fracture toughness of a Brittle and a Ductile adhesive as a function of the
adhesive thickness. J Adhes 2010;86(9):891–905.
[15] Tanaka K, Tanaka H. Stress ratio effect on mode II propagation on interlaminar
fatigue cracks in graphite/epoxy composites. In: Composite materials: fatigue
and fracture, ASTM STP 1285, vol. 6. p. 126–42, 1997.
[16] O’Brien TK. Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness and fatigue
characterization of a graphite epoxy composite material. Hampton
(VA): National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research
Center; 2010.
[17] Alfredsson KS. On the instantaneous energy release rate of the end-notch
flexure adhesive joint specimen. Int J Solids Struct 2004;41(16–17):4787–807.
[18] Campilho RDSG, de Moura MFSF, Ramantani DA, Gonçalves JPM. Obtaining the
cohesive laws of a trapezoidal mixed-mode damage model using an inverse
method. Ciência Tecnol Mater 2008;20(1–2):81–6.
[19] Carlsson LA, Gillespie Jr JW, Pipes RB. On the analysis and design of the end
notched flexure (ENF) specimen for mode II testing. J Compos Mater
1986;20(6):594–604.
[20] de Moura MFSF, Dourado N, Morais JJL, Pereira FAM. Numerical analysis of the
ENF and ELS tests applied to mode II fracture characterization of cortical bone
tissue. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 2011;34(3):149–58.
[21] de Moura MFSF, Campilho RDSG, Gonçalves JPM. Pure mode II fracture
characterization of composite bonded joints. Int J Solid Struct 2008;46:
1589–95.