Aircraft fuselage skin panels are joined together by rivets. The initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in aircraft structures at and around the rivet/skin interface is directly related to residual stress field induced during the riveting process and subsequent service loads. Variations in the manufacturing process, such as applied loading and presence of sealant can influence the induced residual stress field. In previous research, the riveting process has been simulated by a 2D axisymmetric force-controlled analysis. The 2D analysis cannot capture the unsymmetrical residual stress state resulting from process variations. Experimental work has also been limited to observing effects of squeeze force on fatigue crack initiation in the riveted lap joint. In this work, a 3D finite element model of the riveting process that incorporates plasticity and contact between the various surfaces is simulated using ABAQUS finite element code to capture the residual stress state at the rivet/skin interface. The finite element model is implemented to observe the effects of interference, sealant and hole quality on the residual stress state using Implicit and Explicit solvers. Effects of subsequent load transfer are also analyzed with the developed model. A set of controlled lap joint fatigue experiments for the different conditions provides validation to the model.

Orientador: Fernando de Azevedo Silva / Banca: José Elias Tomazini / Banca: Silvana Aparecida Barbosa / Resumo: Juntas rebitadas sobrepostas representam elementos críticos na construção de estruturas aeronáuticas quando projetadas à fadiga. Por serem elementos de fixação largamente utilizados na indústria aeronáutica, o estudo de suas propriedades e variáveis à fadiga tem sido cada vez mais amplo. A variável que tem mostrado possuir alta influência na resistência à fadiga de juntas rebitadas é a força de aperto aplicada no processo de rebitagem. A vida da peça tende a ser maior quando o valor dessa força é aumentado. O método dos elementos finitos, que é uma ferramenta de cálculo aplicada nos mais diversos campos de atuação e tem se tornado parte indispensável de projetos mecânicos, é utilizado nesta dissertação para a análise de uma junta rebitada sobreposta de uso aeronáutico. A junta é simulada levando em conta as etapas do processo de fabricação e aplicação, a fim de realizar a análise de seu comportamento mecânico e calcular sua vida em fadiga. Através de um teste experimental de tração monotônica foram obtidos valores de deformação com extensômetros, e é feita a correlação desses dados com o modelo numérico a fim de validar a modelagem. Em seguida são feitas mais duas análises com diferentes forças de aperto, com o objetivo de verificar a influência dessa variação na vida em fadiga da peça. / Abstract: Riveted lap joints represent a critical element in metallic airframe construction when designing against fatigue. These elements are widely used in the aerospace industry, so the study of the fatigue's properties and variables has been increasingly broad. The variable that has shown to have a high influence on the fatigue strength of riveted joints is the clamping force applied to the riveting process. The life of the part tends to be higher when the clamping force applied is increased. The finite element method, which is a calculation tool applied in various fields of activity and has become an indispensable step of mechanical design, is used in this dissertation for the analysis of a riveted lap joint of aeronautic use. The joint is simulated considering the stages of the manufacturing process and application, in order to perform analysis of mechanical behavior and calculate the fatigue life. Through an experimental test of monotonic tensile, strain values were obtained with strain-gauges, and is made the correlation of these data with the numerical model to validate the modeling. Finally two more tests are made with different clamping forces, in order to check the influence of this variation in fatigue life of the joint. / Mestre

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Adhesive bonding which has been in use for long as a traditional joining method has gained ground in the last couple of decades due to the introduction of advanced composite materials into the aerospace industry. Bonded structures have advantages such as high corrosion and fatigue resistance, ability to join dissimilar materials, reduced stress concentration, uniform stress distribution, good damping characteristics etc. They also have certain limitations like environmental degradation, existence of defects like pores, voids and disbonds, difficulty in maintenance and repair etc. A serious drawback in the use of adhesively bonded structures has been that there are no established comprehensive non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques for their evaluation. Further, a reliable evaluation of the effect of the existing defects on strength and durability of adhesive joints is yet to be achieved. This has been a challenge for the research and development community over several decades and hence, been the motivation behind this piece of research work. Under the scope of the work carried out in the thesis, some of the primary factors such as the existence of defects, degradation of the adhesive, stress and strain distribution in the bonded region etc., have been considered to study the bond integrity in composite to composite lap shear joints. The problem becomes complex if all the parameters affecting the adhesive joint are varied simultaneously. Taking this into consideration, one of the key parameters affecting the bond quality, viz., the adhesive layer degradation was chosen to study its effect on the bonded joint. The epoxy layer was added with different, definite amount of Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) to arrive at sets of bonded joint specimens with varied adhesive layer properties. A thorough review of different non destructive testing methods applied to this particular problem showed that ultrasonic wave based techniques could be the right choice. To start with, preliminary experimental investigations were carried on unidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP-epoxy) lap joints. The adhesive joints were subjected to non destructive evaluation (NDE) using ultrasonic through transmission and pulse echo techniques as also low energy digital X-ray techniques. The results obtained showed a variation in reflected and transmitted ultrasonic pulse amplitude with bond quality. Digital X-Ray radiography technique showed a variation in the intensity of transmitted x-rays due to variation in the density of adhesive. Standard mechanical tests revealed that the addition of PVA decreased the bond strength. A plot of coefficient of reflection from the first interface and the bond strength showed a linear correlation between them. After obtaining a cursory feel and understanding of the parameters involved with the preliminary experiments on GFRP adhesive joints which yielded interesting and encouraging results, further work was carried on specimens made out of autoclave cured carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP)-epoxy bonded joints. Normal incidence ultrasound showed a similar trend. Analyses of the Acoustic Emission (AE) signals generated indicate early AE activity for degraded joints compared to healthy joints. Literary evidences suggest that the ultrasonic shear waves are more sensitive to interfacial degradation. An attempt was made to use oblique incidence ultrasonic interrogation using shear waves. The amplitude of reflected shear waves from the interface increased with an increase in degradation. Further, a signal analysis approach in the frequency domain revealed a shift in the frequency minimum towards lower range in degraded samples. This phenomenon was verified using analytical models. An inversion algorithm was used to determine the interfacial transverse stiffness which decreased significantly due to increase in degradation. Conventional ultrasonic evaluation methods are rendered ineffective when a direct access to the test region is not possible; a different approach with guided wave techniques can be explored in this scenario. Investigations on CFRP-epoxy adhesive joints using Lamb waves showed a decrease in the amplitude of ‘So’ mode in degraded samples. Theoretical dispersion curves exhibited a similar trend. Frequency domain studies on the received modes using Gabor wavelet transform showed a negative shift in frequency with increased degradation. It was also observed that the maximum transmission loss for the most degraded sample with 40 percent PVA occurred in the range of 650 – 800 kHz. Non linear ultrasonic (NLU) evaluation revealed that the nonlinearity parameter (β) increased with increased degradation. Kissing bonds are most commonly occurring type of defects in adhesive joints and are very difficult to characterize. A recent non-contact imaging technique called digital image correlation (DIC) was tried to evaluate composite adhesive joints with varied percentage of inserted kissing bond defects. The results obtained indicate that DIC can detect the kissing bonds even at 50 percent of the failure load. In addition, to different experimental approaches to evaluate the bonded joint discussed above, the effect of degradation on the stresses in the bond line region was studied using analytical and numerical approach. A linear adhesive beam model based on Euler beam theory and a nonlinear adhesive beam model based on Timoshenko beam theory were used to determine the adhesive peel and shear stress in the joint. Digital image correlation technique was used to experimentally obtain the bond line strains and corresponding stresses were computed assuming a plane strain condition. It was found that the experimental stresses followed a similar trend to that predicted by the two analytical models. A maximum peel stress failure criterion was used to predict failure loads. A failure mechanism was proposed based on the observations made during the experimental work. It was further shown that the critical strain energy release rate for crack initiation in a healthy joint is much higher compared to a degraded joint. The analytical models become cumbersome if a larger number of factors have to be taken into account. Numerical methods like finite element analysis are found to be promising in overcoming these hurdles. Numerical investigation using 3D finite element analysis was carried out on CFRP-epoxy adhesive joints. The adherend – adhesive interface was modeled using connector elements whose stiffness properties as well as the bulk adhesive properties for joints with different amounts of PVA were determined using ultrasonic inspection method. The peel and shear stress variation along the adhesive bond line showed a similar trend as observed with the experimental stress distribution (DIC) but with a lesser magnitude. A parametric study using finite element based Monte-Carlo simulation was carried out to assess the effect of variation in various joint parameters like adhesive modulus, bondline thickness, adherend geometrical and material properties on peel and shear stress in the joint. It was found that the adhesive modulus and bond line thickness had a significant influence on the magnitude of stresses developed in the bond line. Thus, to summarize, an attempt has been made to study the bond line integrity of a composite epoxy adhesive lap joint using experimental, analytical and numerical approaches. Advanced NDE tools like oblique incidence ultrasound, non linear ultrasound, Lamb wave inspection and digital image correlation have been used to extract parameters which can be used to evaluate composite bonded joints. The results obtained and reported in the thesis have been encouraging and indicate that in specific cases where the bond line thickness and other relevant parameters if can be maintained or presumed reasonably non variant, it is possible to effectively evaluate the integrity of a composite bonded joint.

Z-pinning is a through-thickness reinforcement technology for polymer composite materials that has been developed and commercialised over the past fifteen years. The through-thickness reinforcement of composites with thin metallic or fibrous pins aids in suppressing delamination, improving impact damage tolerance and increasing joint strength. Z-pins are applied to the composite part during its manufacture. Pins are embedded within sheets of foam and placed over the unconsolidated part. Subsequently, the foam is compacted and the pins transferred into the part, which is usually an uncured prepreg. In this manner, large numbers of pins can be inserted quickly and easily. The pinned composite is then cured using conventional processes. The use of z-pins is currently limited to several high performance composite structures, most notably Formula One racing cars and F/A-18 E/F (Superhornet) fighter aircraft, although the technology has potential applications in a d iverse variety of aerospace and non-aerospace composite structures. A limited understanding of the mechanical performance of z-pinned parts under high load and fatigue loading conditions currently hinders the application of z-pinned composites. The aim of this PhD project is to investigate the mechanical properties, strengthening mechanics and failure mechanisms of z-pinned carbon/epoxy laminates and joints. The effect of z-pin reinforcement on the tensile and flexural properties of laminates under monotonic and fatigue loading is studied. The sensitivity of these properties to the volume content and diameter of the z-pins is systematically studied by experimentation and analytical modelling. This PhD also evaluates the efficacy of z-pins in improving the load-bearing properties of carbon/epoxy lap joints. Improvements to the room temperature and elevated temperature properties of z-pinned lap joints under monotonic and fatigue tensile loading were determined. The effect of strain rate on the load-bearing properties of z-pinned lap joints was also evaluated. A further aim of the PhD project was to assess the z-pin manufacturing process and the microstructural damage caused by that process. The outcome of this study augments the analysis of the me chanical properties of z-pinned laminates and joints.

The effects of high loading rates (HLR), and nano reinforcement on the mechanical response of adhesively-bonded SLJs with composite adherends, subjected to different loading (strain) rates are systematically investigated. The results are then compared to those of neat thermoset resin and thermo-plastic adhesive. More specifically, nano-reinforced and neat resin bonded joints mating carbon/epoxy and glass/epoxy adherends were subjected to tensile loadings under 1.5 and 3 mm/min and tensile impacts at a loading rate of 2.04E+5 mm/min. In some cases, additional tests were conducted under 15, 150, and 1500 mm/min to obtain additional properties gained using the nano-reinforcements for use in the further numerical investigations. The HLR tests were conducted, using a modified instrumented pendulum equipped with a specially designed impact load transfer apparatus. The dispersion of nanoparticles was facilitated using a mechanical stirrer and a three-roll mill machine. The failure mechanisms were studied with a scanning electron microscope.

Adhesive bonding of graphite epoxy composite laminates to itself or traditional metal alloys in modern aerospace and aircraft structural applications offers an excellent opportunity to use the most efficient and intelligent combination of materials available thus providing an attractive package for efficient structural designs. However, one of the major issues of adhesive bonding is the occasional formation of interfacial defects such as kissing or weak bonds in the bondline interface. Also, there are shortcomings of existing non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods to non-destructively detect/characterize these interfacial defects and reliably predicting the bond shear strength. As a result, adhesive bonding technology is still not solely implemented in primary structures of an aircraft. Therefore, there is a greater demand for a novel NDE tool that can meet the existing aerospace requirement for adhesive bondline characterization. This research implemented a novel Acoustography ultrasonic imaging and digital image correlation (DIC) technique to detect and characterize interfacial defects in the bondline and determine bond shear strength in adhesively bonded composite-metal joints. Adhesively bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) laminate and 2024-T3 Aluminum single lap shear panels subjected to various implanted kissing/weak bond defects were the primary focus of this study. Kissing/weak bonds were prepared by controlled surface contamination in the composite bonding surface and also by improperly mixing the adhesive constituent. SEM analyses were also conducted to understand the surface morphology of substrates and their interaction with the contaminants. Morphological changes were observed in the microscopic scale and the chemical analysis confirmed the stability of the contaminant at or very close to the interface. In addition, it was also demonstrated that contaminants migrated during the curing of the adhesive from CFRP substrate which caused a decrease of bond shear strength in single lap shear test samples. Through-transmission ultrasonics (TTU) Acoustography at 3.8 MHz showed promising results on the detectability of bondline defects in adhesively bonded CFRP-Al lap shear test samples. A correlation between Acoustography ultrasonic attenuation and average bond shear strength in CFRP-Al lap shear panels demonstrated that differential attenuation increased with the reduction of the bond shear strength. Similarly, optical DIC tests were conducted to identify and quantify kissing bond defects in CFRP-Al single lap shear joints. DIC results demonstrated changes in the normal strain (εyy) contour map of the contaminated specimens at relatively lower load levels (15% ~ 30% of failure loads). Kissing bond regions were characterized by negative strains, and these were attributed to high compressive bending strains and the localized disbonding taking placed at the bondline interface as a result of the load application. It was also observed that contaminated samples suffered from more compressive strains (εyy) compared to the baseline sample along the loading direction and they suffered from less compressive strains (εxx) compared to the baseline sample perpendicular to the loading direction. This demonstrated the adverse effect of the kissing bond on the adhesive joint integrity. This was a very significant finding for the reason that hybrid ultrasonic DIC is being developed as a faster, more efficient, and more reliable NDE technique for determining bond quality and predicting bond shear strength in adhesively bonded structures.

The increasing use of composite materials in many industries such as aerospace, automotive, and civil industries has increased the need for the development of effective techniques to detect defects in the bondlines of adhesive joints in composite structures. Currently, composite structures used in commercial applications such as modern aircraft use mechanical fasteners in redundancy to adhesive bonds to ensure structural integrity due to a lack of methods to reliably detect defects in the bondline of composite structure. As such, this thesis facilitates the development of nondestructive evaluation techniques for detecting bondline defects by using finite element (FE) modeling to simulate the effects of disbond defects caused by contamination of the bondline. These models were developed for single-lap joint specimens made of metal, composite, and dissimilar materials (metal bonded with composite) with contamination induced disbonds. The created FE models were used to generate whole-field strain data for single-lap joints under tensile loading. This generated strain data was then used to provide a model for evaluating and interpreting experimental strain measurements captured by digital image correlation (DIC). Finally, conclusions were drawn outlining the observed capability of strain measurement in the evaluation of bondline contamination in single-lap joints.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-12-15Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:57:54Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 arbex_aa_me_guara.pdf: 3130393 bytes, checksum: e1c62358ab112fd781ed4b9dfabf900d (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Juntas rebitadas sobrepostas representam elementos críticos na construção de estruturas aeronáuticas quando projetadas à fadiga. Por serem elementos de fixação largamente utilizados na indústria aeronáutica, o estudo de suas propriedades e variáveis à fadiga tem sido cada vez mais amplo. A variável que tem mostrado possuir alta influência na resistência à fadiga de juntas rebitadas é a força de aperto aplicada no processo de rebitagem. A vida da peça tende a ser maior quando o valor dessa força é aumentado. O método dos elementos finitos, que é uma ferramenta de cálculo aplicada nos mais diversos campos de atuação e tem se tornado parte indispensável de projetos mecânicos, é utilizado nesta dissertação para a análise de uma junta rebitada sobreposta de uso aeronáutico. A junta é simulada levando em conta as etapas do processo de fabricação e aplicação, a fim de realizar a análise de seu comportamento mecânico e calcular sua vida em fadiga. Através de um teste experimental de tração monotônica foram obtidos valores de deformação com extensômetros, e é feita a correlação desses dados com o modelo numérico a fim de validar a modelagem. Em seguida são feitas mais duas análises com diferentes forças de aperto, com o objetivo de verificar a influência dessa variação na vida em fadiga da peça. / Riveted lap joints represent a critical element in metallic airframe construction when designing against fatigue. These elements are widely used in the aerospace industry, so the study of the fatigue’s properties and variables has been increasingly broad. The variable that has shown to have a high influence on the fatigue strength of riveted joints is the clamping force applied to the riveting process. The life of the part tends to be higher when the clamping force applied is increased. The finite element method, which is a calculation tool applied in various fields of activity and has become an indispensable step of mechanical design, is used in this dissertation for the analysis of a riveted lap joint of aeronautic use. The joint is simulated considering the stages of the manufacturing process and application, in order to perform analysis of mechanical behavior and calculate the fatigue life. Through an experimental test of monotonic tensile, strain values were obtained with strain-gauges, and is made the correlation of these data with the numerical model to validate the modeling. Finally two more tests are made with different clamping forces, in order to check the influence of this variation in fatigue life of the joint.

Large scale structures such as those in aerospace flight vehicles are made in parts and assembled. Joints are inevitable in these systems and they are potential threats to the structural integrity of the flight vehicles. Fastener and bonded joints are the most commonly used methods of joining in these structures. Among these, adhesive bonding has become more popular with the advent of composite structures, due to the presence of less number of points of stress concentration and the resulting benefit for static strength and fatigue life. In modern aircraft in which maximum percentage of composite materials are being employed due to several benefits, designers are contemplating to replace discrete joints with adhesively bonded joints wherever possible. A detailed literature survey shows that the field of adhesively bonded joints has been extensively studied in the past. Initial publications appeared in late 1950’s and early 1960's, but many of the initial attempts were based on one dimensional (1-D) approximation of the adherents due to lack of computing power. With the current day emphasis on safety and damage tolerance, there is a definite need to study these joints with 2-D and 3-D idealization. In spite of valuable contributions in the literature from several researchers in past 4-5 decades, one finds that there are gaps to be filled, in particular, with reference to static strength prediction and de-bond growth to failure under fatigue loading. This thesis is intended as a modest contribution in this direction covering the methods of strength prediction and also correlations between de-bond growth and fracture parameters. Most commonly used bonded joints are single lap joints. The primary issue in their analysis is the geometric nonlinearity resulting in large deformations due to eccentricity of load path between the adherents. Further, adhesives have very low yield strength and plastic deformation in thin adhesives could affect the mechanics of load transfer. The current work is initiated by carrying out geometric and material nonlinear analysis of adhesively bonded single lap joints between metal-metal (aluminum-aluminum) adherents using standard NASTRAN finite element software. Modified Newton-Raphson iterative technique has been used to economize the computer time and also achieve fast convergence. A convergence study has been conducted to determine the order of mesh size required. Preliminary results are obtained on configurations analysed by earlier workers and the current results are compared with their results. Later, extensive experimental and numerical studies have been taken up on the numerical strength prediction of these joints correlating them to the experimental values. Cohesive failure along the centre line of the adhesive is assumed under both static and fatigue loading. The bonded joints are studied with both 2-D plane stress and plane strain nonlinear FE analysis. The issue in this type of analysis is the presence of theoretical elastic singularity at the ends of the lap length. The normally used maximum stress criterion can not be used in such circumstances. There were attempts in the past to use point stress or average stress criteria for this purpose. In point stress criterion the shear stress (or von-Mises stress) is picked at a characteristic distance away from the ends of the lap length and compared with the corresponding strength value to predict failure. In the average stress criterion the stresses are averaged over a characteristic distance from the ends of lap length and this is compared with the corresponding strength to predict failure. Determination of the characteristic distance in both the cases needs extensive experimental results on static strength of joints. The static strength data is to be correlated with numerical results to determine the characteristic distance in various specimens. In the current thesis a series of specimens with aluminum-aluminum, aluminum-CFRP composite and CFRP-CFRP composite adherents were tested to determine the static strength. In all the specimens the adhesive used was Redux 319 A. These experimental strength data was used to determine characteristic distance using point stress criterion. The consistency of estimates of the characteristic distances in all the specimens shows that the approach is capable of predicting the static strength. The above approaches are capable of predicting the strength of joints with linear material and nonlinear geometric analysis. But when the adhesive yield strength is low, a novel approach is required to predict the static strength. Numerical analysis is conducted using a combined material and geometric nonlinear analysis in NASTRAN software. The plastic zone size from the ends of the lap length is determined at different load levels. Combining the numerical results with experimental failure load data, a failure criterion based on plastic zone size (PZS) is proposed in this thesis and validated. It has been observed that the validation is with limited testing carried out and further experimental programs are required to complete the validation. To the best of the knowledge of the author PZS criterion is used for the first time for failure prediction of bonded joints. The structural integrity of the joints also requires a study of de-bond growth and damage tolerance assurances in the presence of de-bond type of defects. The first step in this direction is to estimate the fracture parameters at the tips of de-bond in the adhesive of lap joints between various adherents. Modified virtual crack closure integral (MVCCI) technique has been developed in the past for estimating Strain Energy Release Rates (SERR) in several crack problems. Large contributions for developing this technique have come from the group where the author has worked. This technique is simple and has the ability to estimate individual SERR components GI and GII in cases of mixed mode fracture. It is seen clearly that the de-bond growth in bonded joint is one of mixed mode. The mode-II component is because of shear stresses transferring the load across the adherents and mode-I component is due to peel stresses developed during the deformation. The mode I SERR component is primarily responsible for de-bond growth and the effect of mode II component on de-bond growth is insignificant. The mesh details for accurately estimating the SERR components are evaluated and those meshes are used to estimate these values for the cases of aluminum-aluminum, aluminum-CFRP composite and composite-composite joints. Obviously, when the adherents are dissimilar, mode I SERR components are the highest and assist faster de-bond growth. Painstaking fatigue de-bond growth experiments were conducted and de-bond growth rate with number of cycles of fatigue loading was determined. MVCCI method is used to estimate SERR components at maximum load and zero load in the fatigue cycle, to determine the SERR range in the fatigue cycle. Since the stress ratio, R of the loading cycle is -1, the minimum load for estimating SERR components is taken as zero. From the experimental data and numerical estimates, a Paris type of equation was developed for the de-bond growth. The thesis concludes with a summary of the achievements in the current work with respect to the structural integrity of adhesively bonded joints and also with suggestions for future work.