Experimental Study of the Impact of Glass Beads on Adhesive Joint Strength and Its Failure Mechanism

The use of modern structural adhesives provides a lightweight, practical, and high strength joining methodology, which is increasingly being adopted in the automotive and aeronautical sectors, among many others. However, the strict mechanical performance standards that must be met in these applications require a constant search for ways of improving the adhesives’ behavior, which has led to the growing use of reinforcements as a way of improving the capabilities of bonded joints. The aim of this work was, thus, to analyze how the addition of inorganic fillers to the adhesive layer affects a joint’s strength and its failure mechanism. To this end, single lap joint specimens with mild steel and high strength steel substrates were tested, at quasi-static speeds, and with different amounts of glass microspheres reinforcing two different structural adhesives. The experimental results indicated that the addition of glass particles reduced the joint performance for both substrates under study. Furthermore, the failure pattern was found to evolve from adhesive failure to a cohesive type of failure as the amount of glass particles present in the adhesive was increased.

Low Viscosity Epoxy Structural Adhesive Cured at Room Temperature for Crack Repair of Subway Tunnel

Epoxy structural adhesive has good mechanical properties, especially high adhesion, low shrinkage rate, and high stability, widely used in steel plate reinforcement, crack repair, bridge splicing, and concrete bonding, etc. However, due to the high cross-linking density and high internal stress after curing, its shortcomings, such as brittleness, the poor performance of fatigue resistance and heat resistance, limit its application in special track engineering. In this work, two kinds of epoxy structural adhesives (EPA-1, EPA-2) with low viscosity and room temperature curing were synthesized by selecting different bisphenol A epoxy resin and active diluent as component A and modified amine curing agent as component B. The results showed that EPA-1 and EPA-2 presented significant toughness compared with the classic construction adhesive (AralditeXH160). The yield strengths of EPA-1 and EPA-2 were 4.88 MPa and 13.13 MPa, and the shear strengths were 11.93 MPa and 13.08 MPa, respectively, showing good adhesive properties. In addition, the viscosities of EPA-1 and EPA-2 were 127 mPa·s and 308 mPa·s, respectively, and their decomposition temperatures were all above ∼280 °C, which indicated that the self-made epoxy structural adhesives could be used for the repair of cracks in the vibration subway tunnel.

Influence of conversion coatings on the resistance of adhesive joints to undercorrosion

The paper deals with the application of conversion coatings for the preparation of surfaces before adhesive bonding of galvanized and non-galvanized steels. The morphology of the coatings was monitored by electron microscopy. The corrosion characteristics of the conversion coatings were determined by linear polarization. Steels treated with conversion coatings were used to form bonded joints using three structural adhesives. The resistance of the joints to undercorrosion was determined following the change in the load-bearing capacity of the joints after exposure in the climatic chamber.

Structural Adhesives Tapes Based on a Solid Epoxy Resin and Multifunctional Acrylic Telomers

Thermally curable pressure-sensitive structural adhesives tapes (SATs) were compounded using a solid epoxy resin and multifunctional acrylic telomer solutions (MATs) prepared by a thermally initiated telomerization process in an epoxy diluent containing two kinds of telogens (CBr4 or CBrCl3). Dynamic viscosity, K-value, and volatile mater content in MATs (i.e., MAT-T with CBr4, MAT-B with CBrCl3) were investigated in relation to telogen type and content. The influence of MATs on the self-adhesive features and curing behavior of UV-crosslinked tapes as well as on the shear strength of thermally cured aluminum–SAT–aluminum joints was investigated as well. Increasing the telogen dose (from 5 to 15 wt. parts) caused significant improvement in the adhesion (+315% and +184%), tack (+147% and +298%), and cohesion (+414% and +1716%) of SATs based on MAT-T and MAT-B, respectively. Additionally, MATs with high telogen content (especially the MAT-T-type) improved the resistance of cured joints to aviation fuel, humidity, and elevated temperature. The highest overlap shear strength values were registered for SATs based on MATs containing 7.5 wt. parts of CBr4 (16.7 MPa) or 10 wt. parts of CBrCl3 (15.3 MPa).

SEMINAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DURABILITY AND DAMAGE TOLERANCE ASSESSMENT OF BONDED JOINTS

Structural adhesives are widely used for joining composite components in many industries and crack growth in such materials is far more likely to occur when they are subjected to repeated cyclic loading than to monotonic loading. Whilst the Hartman- Schijve equation for fatigue crack growth (FCG) has been shown to hold for cohesive crack growth in adhesives under Mode I, Mode II and Mixed-Mode I/II loading, little attention has been paid to its ability to capture the effects of the thickness of the adhesive layer. The present paper examines the growth of fatigue cracks, that occurs cohesively through the adhesive layer, in two toughened epoxy adhesives typical of those used in the automotive and the aerospace industries. Firstly, it is established that when the crack growth rate, da/dN, curves are expressed as a function of Δ√G, or ΔG, where G is the energy release-rate, then the crack growth curves are a function of the thickness of the adhesive layer. It is then shown that this dependency vanishes when da/dN is expressed as a function of the crack-driving force, Δκ, as defined by the Hartman-Schijve equation. Therefore, it is suggested that the parameter Δκ appears to be a valid similitude parameter.