Experimental study on the fatigue crack propagation behavior of DCB specimen with aluminum foam

Abstract

Adhesive processing is increasingly used with bonding method for joined structures. Gathering fracture toughness data regarding the bonded joint is essential to render bonded structures safe. However, researches centering on the strength evaluation of bonding joints for bonded structures of aluminum foam, which has excellent mechanical properties like light weight and impact absorption, are lacking. In this study, DCB test specimen built of aluminum foam is fabricated by the British Standard (BS) and the International Standard Organization (ISO) guidelines. Fatigue test is performed with mode I for DCB test specimen. The fatigue test results with the four types of test specimens with beam heights as parameters show progressed crack within a few cycles as beam height increases. Meanwhile, the energy release rate per crack length becomes higher as the beam height decreases. The fracture behavior of actual composite material bonded by aluminum foam can be analyzed through the correlation of results obtained by tests. The mechanical properties of actual composite structure can be understood by utilizing the bonded aluminum foam.