PSI - Issue 83

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 83 (2026) 179–186

© 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the ESIAM26 organizers Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Four-point bending; Adhesively bonded joints; Step joints; Single-lap joints; Cohesive zone modelling. Abstract The growing adoption of polymer-based additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled the fabrication of lightweight and geometrically complex components. However, dimensional constraints frequently require joining separate parts. When such assemblies are subjected to bending-dominated loading, the structural response of adhesively bonded joints becomes highly dependent on stress gradients, joint geometry, and material heterogeneity. In this work, the flexural behavior of adhesively bonded joints produced from AM thermoplastics is investigated using a four-point bending (4PB) test configuration. Specimens manufactured from Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-modified (PETG), and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) were bonded using two structural adhesives, Araldite ® 2015 and Sikaforce ® 7752. Both single-lap joint (SLJ) and step joint (SJ) geometries were considered. The experimental testing data were interpreted with the support of numerical simulations based on cohesive zone modelling (CZM). This study highlighted the most effective joint configuration and confirmed the CZM effectiveness in predicting the joints’ flexural response. The fourth European Conference on the Structural Integrity of Additively Manufactured Materials (ESIAM26) Parametric analysis on the bending strength of adhesively-bonded 3D-printed joints R.J.B. Rocha a,b , T.F.R. Ribeiro a , F.A.F.S. Magalhães a , R.D.S.G. Campilho a,b, *, R.F.R. Pinto c , A.J.A. Vieira a , K. Madani d a CIDEM, ISEP – School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, R. Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. b INEGI – Pólo FEUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 400, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. c proMetheus, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Сastelo, 4900 -347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal. d Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sidi Bel Abbes, BP 89, Cité Ben M’hidi, 22000, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria.

* Corresponding author. Phone:+351939526892; Fax:+351228321159. E-mail address: raulcampilho@gmail.com

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the ESIAM26 organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.07.021