Influence of Laser Treatment on End Notched Flexure Bonded Joints in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer: Experimental and Numerical Results

Surface pretreatment for bonding is one of the most important steps for the manufacturing of a reliable bonded joint. In this paper, the effectiveness of an innovative pretreatment by CO(2) pulsed laser for bonding Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) was investigated. End Notched Flexure (ENF) specimens were made with different densities of laser treatment, and the respective fracture toughness was obtained through the Compliance-Based Beam Method (CBBM). Furthermore, a cohesive model for simulating debonding processes was illustrated, and the cohesive parameters were obtained by an inverse method. The achieved results represent a fundamental step for the development of a numerical model useful for the determination of laser texturing as a function of the applied local stress into the bonded joint.