Analyzing effects of surface roughness, voids, and particle–matrix interfacial bonding on the failure response of a heterogeneous adhesive

Abstract

An automated computational framework is introduced to link the microstructure to the micromechanical behavior of a heterogeneous adhesive composed of an epoxy matrix and embedded silica particles. A new reconstruction algorithm is employed to synthesize 3D periodic microstructural models of this materials system based on morphological and statistical data extracted from micro-computed tomography images. A non-iterative mesh generation algorithm is implemented in parallel to transform resulting virtual microstructures into finite element (FE) models. The continuum ductile and cohesive damage models used for simulating the adhesive’s failure response are calibrated with experimental data and the statistical representative volume element (SRVE) is identified. We have then carried out several high-fidelity FE simulations to investigate the effects of pre-existing voids in the adhesive layer, surface roughness of adherends, and the bonding strength along particles–matrix interfaces on the failure response of the adhesive subject to tensile, compressive, and shear loads.