Experimental and numerical analyses of creep behaviour of composite bonded joints under mode I and mode II loading

• Creep behaviour under pure mode I and II loading of bonded joints was addressed. • New Cohesive Zone Model for Creep behaviour of composite bonded joints. • The Kachanov-Rabotnov-Voigt-Kelvin-Sun model is better for mode I. • The Liu-Murakami-Voigt-Kelvin-Hyperbolic is better for mode II. The creep behaviour of composite bonded joints under pure mode I and pure mode II loading was analysed in this work. Experimental tests were carried out on the Double Cantilever Beam and the End Notched Flexure under different load levels and the corresponding experimental curves of compliance versus time were recorded for data-processing schemes. The Kachanov-Rabotnov-Voigt-Kelvin-Sun (KRVKS) and Liu-Murakami-Voigt-Kelvin-Hyperbolic (LMVKH) creep laws were implemented in a cohesive zone model suitable for creep analysis and the resulting numerical curves of compliance versus time were compared with the experimental data. The advantages and disadvantages of each model in representing the creep behaviour are analysed and discussed. It was concluded that the KRVKS model is better for representing mode I creep behaviour, while the LMVKH is more suitable for mode II creep behaviour.