Experimentation, material modelling and simulation of bonded joints with a flexible adhesive

The paper deals with material parameters identification of a flexible adhesive and the numerical simulation of its behaviour in a single lap bonded joint. The material modelling was based on the simple shear and tensile-shear laboratory tests of the bonded joints made of thin aluminium and polyurethane plates with the flexible adhesive Terostat MS 9360® manufactured by Henkel AG & Co. The adhesive was considered as a hyperelastic material. The nonlinear analysis of the joints was conducted in ABAQUS® finite element program. The experiment and the simulation of a boat fender made of polyurethane with adhesive joints were performed. The test results were used to validate the simulation and the obtained characteristics of the hyperelastic materials.