Fatigue behaviour of T-joints for marine applications

The purpose of this study was to test a vinylester adhesive T-joint without stratification for a structural part of a ship. Tests were conducted under fatigue and monotonic loadings in order to study the durability of such bonded joints. A careful observation of cracking mechanisms during fatigue life showed that fatigue mechanisms were strongly dependant on the geometry of the sample tested. Moreover this cracks can initiate in the bulk. Results also showed that the fatigue lifetime of such adhesive T-joints is separated into two stages, the initiation stage, which is about a third of the fatigue lifetime, and the propagation stage for the rest up to failure.