Development of an Elasto-plastic Meshless Technique to Analyse Bonded Structures

Adhesive joints are widely used in the production of goods, mainly in the transport industry. However, their industrial applications often have non-standard complex shapes. Computer simulation, like the finite element method (FEM), is widely used for their analysis but limitations still exist. Meshless methods have been in development and offer an option to overcome some limitations of the FEM; however, these are still in development. In this work, an efficient meshless method, the ‘natural neighbour radial point interpolation method’ (NNRPIM), has been applied to the analysis of adhesive joints including an elasto-plastic formulation for the adhesive. First, experimental data corresponding to four overlap lengths (\(L_O\)) and two different adhesives were measured, as a benchmark. Afterwards, joint strength (\(P_{\mathrm{max}}\)) was analytically obtained as a second benchmark. Then, all the joint geometries were simulated utilising the FEM and NNRPIM methodologies, and \(P_{max}\) were calculated from those simulations. Finally, the results were compared against the first and second benchmarks. The meshless method proved to be a good alternative to the FEM, providing similar strength prediction. Moreover, the stress distribution curves were compared. In conclusion, the NNRPIM provides accurate results and could be utilised for further study of adhesively-bonded joints.