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The polymer laminated sheet metal (PLSM) is a layered material which involves a sheet metal substrate, a thin polymer film and an adhesive layer between the film and the substrate. The adhesion properties between the bonded materials are among the most important issues in PLSM forming operations. In this thesis, the main focus has been devoted to characterizing and improving the adhesion properties of the PLSM system for forming applications. Metallic surface roughness evolution and residual stress development in polymer adherends are two consequences of the plastic deformation of the PLSMs. In chapter 2, the effect of these factors on interfacial adhesion strength between metallic substrate and polymer adherend (polymer film with a thin uniform pressure-sensitive adhesive layer on one side) is investigated by devising a new experimental methodology. This methodology is based on two different protocols for preparation of peel sample, one involving pre-straining in uniaxial tension of the metallic substrate prior to lamination and the other involving post-lamination pre-straining of the PLSM. In chapter 3, the peel test results of two different types of PLSMs at different peel speeds are analyzed with two different approaches common in cohesive zone modeling in the literature, namely linear elastic stiffness approach and critical maximum stress approach. The modeling results revealed the significance of the peel speed in determining the interface strength between the adhesive and metallic substrate. In chapter 4, two mechanical treatment techniques of grinding and knurling are implemented to alter the metallic substrate surface roughness before lamination. Peel strength of these samples are investigated at different peel speeds and at different peel loading directions with respect to the grinding and knurling directions. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The polymer laminated sheet metal (PLSM) is a layered material which involves a sheet metal substrate, a thin polymer film and an adhesive layer between the film and the substrate. In this thesis, the main focus has been devoted to characterizing and improving the adhesion properties of the PLSM system for forming applications. A new experimental methodology has been devised for analyzing the effects of deformation-induced surface roughness of metallic substrate and deformation-induced residual stress in polymer adherends on interfacial peel properties of PLSMs. A novel interpretation of the results obtained from rate-independent cohesive zone modeling of peel test has revealed the significance of peel speed in determining the interface strength between the adhesive and the metallic substrate. In another part of this thesis, the effects of two substrate surface alteration techniques, grinding and knurling, on peel properties of PLSMs have been studied.

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The emerging field of nanomechanics is providing a new focus in the study of the mechanics of materials, particularly in simulating fundamental atomic mechanisms involved in the initiation and evolution of damage. Simulating fundamental material processes using first principles in physics strongly motivates the formulation of computational multiscale methods to link macroscopic failure to the underlying atomic processes from which all material behavior originates. A combined concurrent and sequential multiscale methodology is developed to analyze fracture mechanisms across length scales. Unique characterizations of grain boundary fracture mechanisms in an aluminum material system are performed at the atomic level using molecular dynamics simulation and are mapped into cohesive zone models for continuum modeling within a finite element framework. Fracture along grain boundaries typically exhibit a dependence of crack tip processes (i.e. void nucleation in brittle cleavage or dislocation emission in ductile blunting) on the direction of propagation due to slip plane orientation in adjacent grains. A new method of concurrently coupling molecular dynamics and finite element analysis frameworks is formulated to minimize the overall computational requirements in simulating atomistically large material regions. A sequential multiscale approach is advanced to model microscale polycrystal domains in which atomistically-based cohesive zone parameters are incorporated into special directional decohesion finite elements that automatically apply appropriate ductile or brittle cohesive properties depending on the direction of crack propagation. The developed multiscale analysis methodology is illustrated through a parametric study of grain boundary fracture in three-dimensional aluminum microstructures. / Ph. D.