Comparison of Interfacial Shear Strength measurements for Bonded materials and Composite materials

Abstract

Composite materials play an important role in today’s engineering structures. These types of materials are made of two or more individual material components with weak interfaces in-between different material types. Since composite interfaces are generally more prone to failure in shear, an integrated experimental and numerical analysis is carried out to study shear failure at the interface of bonded composites. Two types of specimens, namely Iosipescu shear specimen, and straight edge butt-joint shear specimen are subjected to experimental testing in shear. Further, fringe pattern experiments are carried and the fringes are reproduced numerically. The results indicate that there is no specific advantage in using an Iosipescu specimen over a butt-shear specimen. Finally, a Monte Carlo method is used to analyze the failure in the shear specimens. An initial flaw model is assumed to cause final failure with crack length and crack location as random parameters. Conclusions are drawn from the simulations and the experimental analysis, and the need for a specialized test like the Iosipescu shear is doubted.