Cohesive law identification of adhesive layers subject to shear load - The Twice Notched Flexure Test

By the means of a general analytic solution, suitable to identify the cohesive law that characterizes the behavior of adhesive layers subject to shear load and recently published by this author, a new test configuration is presented. This test configuration, named Twice Notched Flexure Test (TNF), is thought as alternative to the traditional End Notched Flexure (ENF) test or similar ones. It is expected to have several interesting improvement features. In order evaluating the TNF identification methodology, a de-cohesion virtual test is performed by means of detailed FE simulation. The simulation shows that, within the limits of the present model, the cohesive law can be deduced with very high precision.