Single lap joint strength prediction using the radial point interpolation method and the critical longitudinal strain criterion

Adhesive joining is currently a very popular joining method. This increases the necessity for better strength prediction tools to aid in the design of these joints. Currently, Cohesive Zone Modeling (CZM) is the most popular method to study joint strength. However, CZM requires traction-separation laws, which define the adhesive behavior, and these are dependent on the adhesive thickness (t(A)). This means that, when using CZM, the traction separation law parameters have to be measured multiple times to predict the strength of joints with different tA. The recently proposed Critical Longitudinal Strain (CLS) criterion is a criterion based on continuum mechanics, which was previously used with the Finite Element Method (FEM) to predict the strength of Single Lap Joints (SLJ). The use of meshless methods to predict the strength of adhesive joints is scarce and the CLS criterion has never been used with the Radial Point Interpolation Method (RPIM). In this work, the CLS criterion was used with the RPIM to determine the strength of SLJ bonded with three different adhesives, The strength predictions with this approach were accurate for the three adhesives, which ranged from brittle to highly ductile.