In this work use is made of a cohesive-zone approach for the simulation of adhesive damage in adhesively bonded joints. The interface relationship relating tractions to displacement discontinuities is derived within the framework of damage mechanics and the constitutive model is formulated in a way that the advancement of the decohesion front takes place when the absorbed traction-separation work equals a critical fracture energy. For the mixed-mode case two interaction criteria expressed in terms of material parameters measurable in single mode delamination tests are adopted for determining the onset and growth of decohesion. Numerical simulations are presented for a typical test problem in which the adhesive layer is modelled via interface elements
