A Controlled Mixed-Mode Bending (CMMB) test to investigate the fracture of structural adhesive joints

A so called Controlled Mixed-Mode Bending (CMMB) test is presented, which has been developed toinvestigate the fracture of crash-optimized, elastic-plastic adhesives loaded in mixed-mode. While mostcommon mixed-mode tests, like e.g. the MMB test, work fine with brittle adhesives, the controlled MMBtakes into account the large crack opening displacements at the crack tip and ensures a constant mode mixat the crack tip by the regulation of two actuators. Consequently, the definition of mode mixity is asignificant difference to state-of-the-art experiments, which define the mode mixity in terms of the ratio ofdissipated energy in the single modes and which are therefore based on analytical models or assumptionsconcerning the energy dissipation during the test. A further target of the presented CMMB test is to obtain information on the complete shape of the socalled traction separation law, which describes the relation between stress and displacement inside theadhesive layer. Such traction separation law is often used to define the failure behaviour of an adhesivejoint within a numerical analysis, using cohesive elements in a finite element code or similar approaches. Beside the theory and the idea of the CMMB test, experimental results for the adhesive SikaPower 498 arepresented and deeply discussed with respect to difficulties and limitations of the proposed method and therealized experimental setup.