Title: Novel approaches for strongly enhanced mechanical performance of bonded joints

Abstract

Current aerospace, automotive, and shipbuilding are pursuing the fabrication of strong and damage-tolerant components using advanced joining techniques. In that respect, adhesive bonding plays a crucial role because it eases the assembly process and provides increased design flexibility. Adhesive properties and morphology/topography of mating surfaces control the mechanical performances of the joints. Recent work has shown that substrate architecture represents a new scale for the joint design and allows us to tune deformation and fracture mechanisms, crafting layered structures with enhanced strength and toughness. Unprecedented developments in additive manufacturing are hastening this approach. This talk will support this point of view and leverage the results of the most recent research work on the analysis of deformation and fracture of layered materials. The presentation will showcase the results of the author and co-workers' ongoing collaborative efforts that focus on tailoring bond line and interfacial architectures to achieve enhanced mechanical behaviour. After that, I will dive into current research to unravel the existing interplay between adjoined layers' architecture and the resistance to interfacial separation. The discussion will be mainly framed into the latest experimental results that include 3D printing, fracture testing, high-resolution in-situ imaging of the fracture process. The talk will highlight that material architecture promotes a snap-through cracking process represented by a sequence of non-equilibrium transitions accompanied by sudden load drops and a local release of strain energy. The tantalizing opportunity of tuning energy dissipation by tailoring material architecture will be emphasized with the aid of design exploration and computational fracture mechanics.