14 Thin Adhesive Layer Analysis (TALA) for Modeling Sealants and Adhesives Installed in Joints

Modeling of a sealant layer using FEA is not practical because the thickness of the sealant layer is so small compared to the panel dimensions. TALA avoids this problem by representing the sealant using spring elements connecting two contacting surfaces, eliminating solid element representation of the sealant layer in the finite element models (see Figure 14.1).Thus, each pair of coincident nodes between two contacting surfaces in the finite element models is connected by spring elements (defined as SPRING2 element in ABAQUS). The mechanical behavior of the springs must be defined in local normal and local shear directions in the finite element models. The stresses and strains in the springs are converted to forces and displacements interacting between the two contacting surfaces. The properties of the adhesive are treated as isotropic and time and load rate independent. This chapter is based on References [6] and [21]. The nomenclature for this chapter is listed at the end of the chapter.