The simulation of a double cantilever beam test using the virtual crack closure technique with the cohesive zone modelling

The fracture of an adhesively bonded joint is a complicated process of crack nucleation and propagation. In this work, a method for modelling the fracture process with separate nucleation and propagation phases is presented. The method combines the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) with the cohesive zone modelling (CZM) on the finite element basis to take into account the development of fracture toughness. The method is applied to simulate...