Abstract
The debonding of Glare skin–stringer configurations for aerospace applications has been studied. Fatigue life curves were produced experimentally for two types of skin–stringer configurations. Using the double cantilever beam specimen configuration and applying different loading conditions, material models for pure mode I and mixed mode I and mode II fatigue loading were generated for the adhesive used to bond the skin to the stringer. These material models describe the crack growth rate, da/dN, as a function of the maximum cyclic strain energy release rate, G max, and were used together with finite element analysis of the cracked skin–stringer configuration to derive predictions of the fatigue life. The predicted fatigue life was compared to the experimental results.