PSI - Issue 72

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 72 (2025) 52–60

12th Annual Conference of Society for Structural Integrity and Life (DIVK12) Cohesive zone analysis of tubular adhesive joints subjected to impact stresses P.D.A. da Silva a , R.D.S.G. Campilho a,b, *, A.L. Faria a , M.J.R. Queirós a , K. Madani c , A. Houari c a CIDEM, ISEP – School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, R. Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. b Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 400, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. c Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sidi Bel Abbes, BP 89, Cité Ben M’hidi, 22000, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria. Abstract Among the fields of application that most use adhesive joints, the aeronautical and automotive industries stand out. There are currently many methods for predicting the strength of an adhesive joint. Cohesive zone modelling (CZM) is widespread for static analysis of adhesive joints. However, in many applications, impact analyses are fundamental to assess the structural safety of adhesively bonded structures. This work addresses the numerical analysis of adhesive tubular joints subjected to impact loads, considering different adhesives. The numerical approach to model impact damage consisted of an adaption of the CZM technique using the Abaqus ® software. A parametric numerical study carried out on the influence of the overlap length ( L O ) and adherends thickness ( t p ), on the strength of the adhesive joints. Plots with the distribution of  y normal stresses and  xy shear stresses are presented, as well as load-displacement ( P -  ) curves, absorbed energy ( E a ) and maximum load ( P m ) for all joints tested. It was concluded that the strength of the adhesive joints increases for stiff adhesives. P m and E significantly improved for higher L O . Overall, clear design principles are proposed to maximize the tensile behavior of tubular adhesive joints under impact loads. © 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 Aleksandar Sedmak, Branislav Djordjevic, Simon Sedmak Dr. Simon Sedmak, ssedmak@mas.bg.ac.rs, Innovation Center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia

Keywords: Adhesive joint, Structural adhesive, Impact analysis, Cohesive zone models

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +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 Aleksandar Sedmak, Branislav Djordjevic, Simon Sedmak Dr. Simon Sedmak, ssedmak@mas.bg.ac.rs, Innovation Center of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.08.073