Simulation of fracture propagation in adhesive joints using the natural neighbours radial point interpolation method

Leading construction, automotive, and aircraft industries rely on structural adhesive joints to provide strong lightweight structures. Adhesive joints allow the joining of dissimilar materials, and uniformly distribute stress, thus reducing stress concentrations, and providing high fatigue durability within dynamic conditions and corrosive environments. The numerical simulation of adhesively bonded components is compromised by the intricate stress fields within the adhesive layer and its interfaces. Furthermore, the development of high convergent techniques is highly motivated, due to the dense nodal discretization required in such delicate regions. In recent years, meshless methods have been applied to adhesive joint simulation, demonstrating interesting results in the strength prediction of bonded joints subjected to fracture propagation. In this work, the natural neighbours radial point interpolation method (NNRPIM) is implemented to predict crack propagation in adhesively bonded joint specimens. In opposition to conventional meshless techniques, the NNRPIM uniquely relies on the nodal discretization to construct the integration points based on the Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation. Geometric crack propagation is explicit, and not hindered by the remeshing of local fixed elements, as in finite element methods. Numerical results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed NNRPIM-based crack propagation algorithm to simulate fracture propagation in adhesively bonded joints.