Published on 22 January 2013
Adhesives are increasingly being used for joining a wide variety of materials. Bond strength and longevity are critical factors when considering the integrity of such joints and therefore knowledge of the way load is transferred is vital.
A finite element based modelling program, Gluemaker, was developed at TWI to predict the magnitude and distribution of deformation, stress and strain in adhesive joints.
Gluemaker was developed to enable automated finite element analysis (FEA) of adhesively bonded joints. It has the following features:
.A user friendly graphical front end allowing people without a background in FEA to run the program.
.An extensive materials database.
.Rapid 'what if' and 'look see' analysis possible.
.Quick and easy parametric studies.
How does Gluemaker work?
The user is guided through a series of input data dialogue boxes as detailed below:
- Joint geometry. A choice of joint types is given in the program and, once selected the joint dimensions must be specified.
- Material data can be defined for each part of the model by either selecting data from the material database or entering known material properties.
- Loads. A wide variety of restraint and loading conditions can be applied. Loads can be applied using force, displacement and temperature in a variety of configurations.
- Meshing the model. The user has control over the mesh density and element type.
Once the joint has been fully defined the model can be run through the finite element solver. The results of this analysis are presented as contour plots and line graphs.
For information about TWI's capabilities please contact us.