A Strategy for the Simulation of Adhesive Layers

The high accurate simulation of very thin glue layers based on the finite element method is still connected to many problems which result from the necessity to construct a complicated mesh of essentially different sizes of elements. This can lead to a loss of accuracy, unstable calculations and even loss of convergence. However, the implementation of special transmission elements along the glue ling and special edge-elements in the near-edge region would lead to a dramatic decrease of number of finite elements in the mesh and thus, prevent unsatisfactory phenomena in numerical analysis and extensive computation time. The theoretical basis for such special elements is the knowledge about appropriate transmission conditions and the edge effects near the free boundary of the adhesive layer. Therefore, recently proposed so-called non-classical transmission conditions and the behavior near the free edge are investigated in the context of the single-lap tensile-shear test of adhesive technology.