Analytic adherend deformation correction in the new ISO 11003-2 standard: Should it really be applied?

For reliable determination of mechanical characteristics of adhesively bonded joints used e.g. as input data for computer-aided design of complex components, the thick-adherend tensile-shear test according to ISO 11003-2 is the most important material testing method. Although the total displacement of the joint is measured across the polymer layer directly in the overlap zone in order to minimize the influence of the stepped adherends, the substrate deformation must be taken into account within the framework of the evaluation of the shear modulus and the maximum shear strain, at least when high-strength adhesives are applied. In the standard ISO 11003-2 version of 1993, it was prescribed to perform the substrate deformation correction by means of testing a one-piece reference specimen. The authors, however, pointed to the excessive demands on the measuring accuracy of the extensometers connected with this technique in industrial practice and alternatively proposed a numerical deformation analysis of a dummy specimen. This idea of a mathematical correction was included in the revised ISO 11003-2 version of 2001 but in the simplified form of an analytical method based on Hooke's law of elasticity for small strains. In the present work, it is shown that both calculation techniques yield considerably discordant results. As experimental assessment would require high-precision distance determination (e.g. laser extensometer), finite element analyses of the deformation behavior of the bonded joint are performed in order to estimate the accuracy of the obtained substrate deformation corrections. These simulations reveal that the numerical correction technique based on the finite element deformation modeling of the reference specimen leads to considerably more realistic results.