The wedge test (sometimes called the Boeing wedge test) is amongst the most readily exploitable techniques for assessment of the rate-dependent fracture energy of adhesive materials when used to bond relatively rigid substrates. With its siblings: the double cantilever beam (DCB), and the tapered double cantilever beam (TDCB), a force is applied, essentially in cleavage, to provoke substrate separation perpendicularly to the bondline...

L'essai de clivage en coin, plus communément appelle 'boeing wedge' test, est une méthode de référence pour qualifier la tenue mécanique a long terme des collages structuraux. Cette technique est particulièrement appréciée de par son faible cout et la simplicité de sa mise en ouevre. Elle consiste a précontraindre la colle en insérant un coin entre deux plaques assembles. L'énergie élastique ainsi stockée dans la structure...

A strain gauge technique recently developed with the wedge test, for estimating crack length and, thus, the fracture energy of structural adhesive bonding, has been employed on a system in which one adherend had two types of surface treatment. Simple polishing and polishing with subsequent sandblasting were the treatments used, with a distinct straight line, perpendicular to the sample edges, separating the two. Despite the clear-cut...

The wedge test and the related double cantilever beam test are practical methods of assessing structural adhesive fracture energy. In the former, and to a lesser extent the latter, a recognised problem is the difficulty of following the length of the growing crack, required to calculate fracture energy with any accuracy. We present a novel method of measurement of crack length that has the advantages of being accurate and allowing...

Wedge tests are usually analysed assuming that the free, unbonded members may be treated as encastré cantilever beams. However, if the adhesive layer is sufficiently flexible (e.g., due to low elastic modulus), then significant strain in the bonded region may occur and lead to modification of the behaviour outside this region. Using in conjunction a sensitive strain gauge method on asymmetric wedge tests and a mathematical analysis...