Speaker
Description
Adhesive bonding technology is increasingly being adopted in the automotive, aerospace, and
naval sectors [1], driven by the demand for lightweight and easy-to-assemble joints, as well as
by advances in chemical formulations. Its application in safety-critical components poses sig-
nificant modeling challenges, requiring an accurate representation of both in-service behavior
and failure mechanisms.
To reproduce and generalize the mechanical behavior of these joints, a phase-field damage
model is proposed. Three different modeling approaches are considered:
1. a 2D plane-strain model;
2. a hybrid 1D–2D model, in which the bonded substrates are modeled using Timoshenko–Ehrenfest
beam elements, while the adhesive layer is represented by a 2D plane-strain shell;
3. a purely 1D model, where the adhesive (mastic) is described through a dedicated 1D
formulation.
The first two approaches allow for the analysis of the volumetric behavior of the joint under
various conditions (e.g., different adhesive thicknesses and plane stress/plane strain loading
states). Furthermore, they can be employed to identify the parameters required for the 1D
model. However, these approaches are computationally demanding and therefore not well suited
for large-scale simulations.
The purely 1D model, while unable to capture the full volumetric behavior and all the spe-
cific effects addressed by the higher-dimensional approaches, is computationally efficient and
straightforward to implement, making it suitable for large-scale analyses.
All these approaches preserve the flexibility of the phase-field framework, which can be further
enriched by incorporating finite elasticity models and finite viscoelasticity (e.g., [2]).
REFERENCES
[1] O. Sapronov et al, Development and use of new polymer adhesives for the restoration of
marine equipment units. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (2020) 8(7), 527.
[2] Ciambella, J., Lancioni, G., Stortini, N. (2025). A finite viscoelastic phase-field model
for prediction of crack propagation speed in elastomers. European Journal of Mechanics-
A/Solids, 113, 105678.