Effect of FRP Pipe Scaling on its Adhesive Bonding Strength

Polymer-based materials are emerging as a potential substitute for metallic structures in the oil and gas industry. In this context, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) piping is one promising application. An important area of the research pertaining to FRP piping is the connection of pipe sections. Challenges associated with the joining of FRP tubular sections are often considerable, which limits more widespread industrial application. Adhesive bonding is emerging as a promising technique to join tubular FRP structures. The ability to maintain undamaged fiber architecture is a major advantage of adhesive bonding technology. In the present study a strength-of-materials as well as fracture mechanics approach was employed in conjunction with the finite element method to investigate the scaling effects on adhesively bonded tubular sections. It was found that the scaling effects in joined FRP pipe may be significant. For certain composite material configurations the analysis indicated a shift of the region of failure from the pipe structure to pure adhesive (cohesive) failure with increasing pipe diameter.     

Tensile creep of a structural epoxy adhesive: Experimental and analytical characterization

Epoxy adhesives are nowadays being extensively used in Civil Engineering applications, mostly in the scope of the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. In this context, epoxy adhesives are used to provide adequate stress transference from fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) to the surrounding concrete substrate. Most recently, the possibility of using prestressed FRPs bonded with these epoxy adhesives is also being explored in order to maximize the potentialities of this strengthening approach. In this context, the understanding of the long term behaviour of the involved materials becomes essential. Even when non-prestressed FRPs are used a certain amount of stress is permanently applied on the adhesive interface during the serviceability conditions of the strengthened structure, and the creep of the adhesive may cause a continuous variation in the deformational response of the element. In this context, this paper presents a study aiming to experimentally characterize the tensile creep behaviour of an epoxy-based adhesive currently used in the strengthening of concrete structures with carbon FRP (CFRP) systems. To analytically describe the tensile creep behaviour, the modified Burgers model was fitted to the experimental creep curves, and the obtained results revealed that this model is capable of predicting with very good accuracy the long term behaviour of this material up to a sustained stress level of 60% of the adhesive׳s tensile strength.     

Finite Element Based Design and Adhesion Failure Analysis of Bonded Tubular Socket Joints Made with Laminated FRP Composites

This paper deals with Finite Element Analysis of bonded Tubular Socket Joints (TSJs) made with laminated Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) composite structures. The effective coupling length for suitable performance of the joint is determined based on the Tsai–Wu failure criterion. The analysis revealed the three-dimensional nature of the stresses and are found to be concentrated in the close vicinity of the free edges and junction of the adherends in the coupling region of the bonded TSJ. Shear stress ( τ_r ), though comparatively small in magnitude, is found to be extremely sensitive to three-dimensional effects as compared to stresses τ_zr and σ_r . Failure indices at different critical interfaces are determined using Quadratic Failure Criterion (QFC) within the adhesive and Tsai–Wu coupled stress criterion for the adherend–adhesive and socket–adhesive interfaces. Based on the latter criterion, locations prone to adhesion failure initiation are identified to be existing near the free edges of the adherend–adhesive interfaces in the coupling region of the bonded TSJ. Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR) calculated using Modified Crack Closure Integral (MCCI) vis-à-vis Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) has been used as the characterizing parameter for assessing the growth of adhesion failures. The adhesion failure damages have been observed to propagate at the same rate in a self-similar manner mainly in the in-plane shearing mode. Quasi-isotropic and angle-ply orientations of the FRP composite laminates are more resistant to opening mode growth of failure, whereas cross-ply and unidirectional oriented socket/adherends offer better resistance to in-plane shearing mode of adhesion failure damage growth. Plies oriented in the direction of the applied load, especially Graphite/Epoxy (Gr/E) [90]₁₆, are found to offer the best resistance to all types of adhesion failure growth modes and hence are the most preferred fibre orientations for the bonded TSJ under tension. Increasing the degree of anisotropy of the composite socket/adherends improves the adhesion failure damage growth resistance of the bonded TSJ. Boron/Epoxy (B/E) FRP composites are found to be the best in slowing down the growth rate of the adhesion failures among the various FRP composite socket/adherends considered in the present study.     

Influence of the mechanical behaviour of different adhesives on an interference-fit cylindrical joint

Hybrid adhesive joining techniques are often used in many industrial sectors to design lightweight structures. A hybrid adhesive joint results from the combination of adhesive bonding with other traditional joining methods such as welding and mechanical fastening, with the aim of combining the advantages of the different techniques and overcoming their drawbacks.This study focuses on the interference fitted/adhesive bonded joining technique. In this application, two cylindrical components are coupled together by inserting one into the other, after having placed an adhesive between them. Generally anaerobic acrylic adhesives, also known as “retaining compound” are used for this application. However the effect of the adhesive nature and of its mechanical and adhesive responses on the performance of the hybrid joint is still unclear. The aim of the present research is to improve the understanding of the behaviour of different adhesives, including rigid epoxies and flexible polyurethanes, in the presence of an interference-fit. Static strength of bonded and unbonded interference fit joints have been compared in order to investigate the role of the different adhesives.     

Interfacial stresses in FRP-plated RC beams: Effect of adherend shear deformations

A recently popular method for retrofitting reinforced concrete (RC) beams is to bond fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) plates to their tensile faces. An important failure mode of such plated beams is the debonding of the FRP plates from the concrete due to high level of stress concentration in the adhesive at the ends of the FRP plate. This paper presents an improved solution for interfacial stresses in a concrete beam bonded with the FRP plate by including the effect of the adherend shear deformations. The analysis is based on the deformation compatibility approach where both the shear and normal stresses are assumed to be invariant across the adhesive layer thickness. In the present theoretical analysis, the adherend shear deformations are taken into account by assuming a parabolic shear stress through the thickness of both the concrete beam and the bonded plate. Numerical results from the present analysis are presented both to demonstrate the advantages of the present solution over existing ones and to illustrate the main characteristics of interfacial stress distributions.     

Joining of fiber‐reinforced polymer tubes for high‐pressure applications

Fiber‐reinforced polymer composites offer superior performance particularly in harsh environments; hence, they are recognized as an attractive material, especially for the transportation of pressurized fluids. However, an extensive use of these composites has been hampered, in part due to unsatisfactory solutions for the joining of subcomponents, and insufficient knowledge on the associated damage behavior. A favorable connection design for a piping system can be an adhesively bonded joint. In this study, a unique adhesive injection technique is presented that joins composite pipe sections using filament‐wound overlap sleeve couplers. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the performance and associated damage behavior of a prototype‐size pipe structure joined by the above procedure. Internal pressure and axial traction were applied to specimens at various biaxial ratios. In addition to the experimental investigation, the joint geometry was also modeled numerically employing the finite element technique. This yielded a better understanding of the damage behavior and enabled a parametric study that provided recommendations for an improved joint design. POLYM. COMPOS., 27:99–109, 2006. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Review on adhesive joints and their application in hybrid composite structures

Composites have been used extensively in various engineering applications including automotive, aerospace, and building industries. Hybrid composites made from two or more different reinforcements show enhanced mechanical properties required for advanced engineering applications. Several issues in composites were resolved during the last few years through the development of new materials, new methods and models for hybrid joints. Many components in automobile are joined together either by permanent or temporary fastener such as rivets, welding joint and adhesively bonded joints. Increasing use of bonded structures is envisaged for reducing fastener count and riveted joints and there by drastically reducing assembly cost. Adhesive bonding has been applied successfully in many technologies. In this paper, scientific work on adhesively bonded composites and hybrid composites are reviewed and discussed. Several parameters such as surface treatment, joint configuration, material properties, geometric parameters, failure modes, etc. that affect the performance of adhesive bonded joints are discussed. Environmental factors like pre-bond moisture and temperature, method of adhesive application are also cited in detail. A specific case of adhesive joints in hybrid bonded-bolted joints is elaborated. As new applications are expanding in the field of composites joining and adhesive joints, it is imperative to use information on multiple adhesives and their behaviour in different environmental conditions to develop improved adhesive joint structure in mechanical applications.     

Bond quality at the FRP–wood interface using wood-laminating adhesives

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP)-strengthened glulam would be a more economically viable product if a single adhesive type could be utilised at all the bonded interfaces. This paper describes a test programme that examines the hygrothermal compliance of five commercial wood-laminating adhesives when bonding commercially viable FRP materials to wood. It was seen that the integrity of the bond depended not only on adhesive type but also on the FRP type under consideration. For one of the FRP types, moisture-cycled FRP–wood bonded specimens obtained high wood failure percentages and good shear strength results that compared well with non-moisture-cycled FRP–wood specimens, non-moisture-cycled wood–wood bonded specimens and solid control specimens taken from the same board. This encouraging result suggests an alternative to the expensive structural epoxy adhesives, which are generally accepted as the appropriate adhesive in FRP-strengthened glulam.     

GFRP-to-timber bonded joints: Adhesive selection

Recent research at the University of Queensland (UQ) has led to the development of a new type of structures called “Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP)-Timber structures” (“HFT”). In HFT structures, FRP is combined with timber veneers to create high-performance, lightweight, easy-to-construct structural members. These HFT members take advantage (i) of the orthotropic properties of both, timber and FRP to orientate the fiber direction to produce optimal composite properties, and (ii) of the geometry of the cross sections to maximize the load bearing capacity for a given amount of material. While preliminary experimental work has revealed as such the effectiveness of HFT structural members, no work has been carried out so far to investigate the behavior of these HFT structures. Performance of these new HFT members relies significantly on the bond between FRP and timber. This paper presents the results of an experimental study aimed at selecting a suitable commercially available adhesive for glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP)-to-timber bonded joints. The experimental program included 393 single lap joint tests covering four different commercially available adhesives, two different curing temperatures, and two test methods (dry and moisture cycle tests). The test results revealed that both, polyurethane (PUR) and cross-linking polyvinyl acetate emulsion (PVAx) performed as the best under dry conditions, while PUR was shown to be superior to all other adhesives when subjected to moisture cycles. Epoxy and phenol resorcinol formaldehyde adhesive (PRF) commonly used in FRP structures and laminated timber structures, resp., were found to be less performing structural adhesives for HFT structures.     

Evaluation of FRP/wood adhesively bonded epoxy joints on environmental exposures

This article describes the evaluation of the durability of joints composed of wood adherends with a bonded layer of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) fabric. Carbon and glass fibres in an epoxy matrix were studied. The main purpose of FRP usage with timber in the construction industry is generally to improve the stiffness/strength of reinforced members without any influence on their service-life or any environmental impact. From the perspective of the timber reinforcement process, optimal dimensional stability during moisture changes in wood should be one of the most important criteria for such joints. Therefore, FRP/wood joints were evaluated with regard to the influence of real external environmental conditions on the bondline over a period of 40?months. During exposure to these conditions, specimen failures and defects were continuously visually evaluated. The decisive factor in this evaluation was bond integrity, verified by the tensile shear strength of the FRP/wood joint. After the experimental study, it was noted that the first 20?months have a significant effect on bondline failure occurrences, which involve decreases in tensile shear strength. In the next 20?months, the FRP/wood bondlines resist other severe hygrothermal stresses without significant strength decreases. An additional observed parameter was the percentage of wood failure in the bonded area of single lap joints, which characterises the mode of failure of the bonded joint. To determine the influence of ageing on adhesive due to ultraviolet radiation and varying temperature, infrared absorption spectroscopy analysis was performed to reveal changes in the macromolecular structure of the epoxy adhesive. Findings showed that UV radiation had a significant influence on the degradation of the adhesive structure.     

A simple approach for characterizing the performance of metallic tubular adhesively-bonded joints under torsion loading

Adhesive bonding of joints is one of the most commonly and widely used joining methods in piping systems. This work is concerned with the investigation of the influence of the non-linear behavior of the adhesive used in such bonded joints on their performance. The parametric analysis module of ABAQUS was used to model the joint. The model facilitated the analysis of different geometric, loading and material characteristics of the system, in particular the adhesive nonlinearity, which is of prime interest in this work. By using the Ramberg–Osgood plasticity model, the failure threshold of the adhesive for various joint lengths (hereafter referred to overlap length) was characterized. The plasticity model used in this study was fine-tuned using only a limited number of known parameters, through comparison with the results of the finite element (FE) simulation. The results obtained from the FE analysis were verified by experimental results. The FE strategy is demonstrated to be an effective means for predicting the capacity of such joints, where conducting a pure shear test is either impossible or difficult to accomplish. Contrary to the findings based on the elastic finite element analysis, the plasticity analysis revealed that the overlap length affects the ultimate strength of the joint.     

Effect of creep on the mode II residual fracture energy of adhesives

Viscous flow that often occurs in adhesive materials leads to a permanent deformation when adhesives are subjected to creep loading. Creep loading has a significant influence on the strength of bonded structures. Due to the viscous behavior, the fracture energy also may change with time for joints that experience creep loading in service. In this work the effects of two creep parameters (creep load and time) on the residual mode II fracture energy of an adhesive was investigated using end notched flexure (ENF) specimens. To achieve this, ENF samples were subjected to different creep loading levels at different creep times followed by quasi static tests to obtain the residual shear fracture energy of the adhesive. Experimental results showed that pre-creep loading of the bonded structures can significantly improve the fracture energy and the static strength of the joints.     

Thermo-fracture analysis of composite-aluminum bonded joints at low temperatures: Experimental and numerical analyses

Adhesive joints have found extensive applications in aerospace structures because of important advantages such as uniform stress distribution, thermal, acoustic and electrical insulation as well as capability of joining dissimilar materials. These joints in aerospace structures frequently experience severe low temperatures. Lack of experimental data in this field motivated the study of the fracture of adhesive joint at low temperatures in this paper. Fracture parameters of carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer-based composites (CFRP) and aluminum bonded joints were investigated in a temperature range of −80 to +22 °C. In order to understand the mechanical behavior of different components of the bonded joint, firstly, the components (adhesive, composite, and aluminum) were characterized by conducting tensile tests. Subsequently, specimens of cracked bonded joint were tested at low temperatures in different loading modes (mode I, mode II, and mixed mode I/II). The finite element model of the bonded joint was developed in order to obtain the dimensionless functions of stress intensity factors at lower temperatures. The results showed that a reduction in temperature down to a particular value contributes to improved critical stress intensity factors, while any further reduction in the temperature tends to lower the critical stress intensity factors, eventually leading to decreased fracture energy absorption capacity of the structure. In the final section of this paper, a study on fracture surfaces and fracture mechanisms was performed via macroscopic and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analyses.     

Experimental and analytical investigations of creep of epoxy adhesive at the concrete–FRP interfaces

This paper presents the results of experimental and analytical investigations on the long-term behavior of epoxy at the interface between the concrete and the fiber-reinforced-polymer (FRP). Double shear experiments under sustained service load were performed on nine specimens composed of two concrete blocks connected by FRP sheets bonded to concrete using epoxy. The primary investigation parameters included the ratio of shear stress to ultimate shear strength, the epoxy thickness and the epoxy time-before-loading. Loading was sustained for periods up to nine months. We show that the magnitude of shear stress to ultimate shear strength and the epoxy time-before-loading could be the most critical parameters affecting creep of epoxy at the concrete–FRP interfaces. It was also found that the creep of epoxy can result in failure at the interfaces due to the combined effect of relatively high shear stress to ultimate shear strength and thick epoxy adhesive. This can have an adverse effect on the designed performance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures strengthened with FRP. Based on the experimental observations, rheological models were developed to simulate the long-term behavior of epoxy at the concrete–FRP interfaces. It is shown that the long-term behavior of epoxy at the interfaces can be properly modeled by analytically for both loading and unloading stages.     

Characterization of fracture in adhesively bonded double-lap joints

A broad finite element study was carried out to understand the stress fields and stress intensity factors behavior of cracks in adhesively bonded double-lap joints, which are representative of loading in real aerospace structures. The interaction integral method and fundamental relationships in fracture mechanics were used to determine the mixed-mode stress intensity factors and associated strain energy release rates for various cases of interest. The numerical analyses of bonded joints were also studied for various kinds of adhesives and adherends materials, joint configurations, and thickness of adhesive and different crack lengths. The finite element results obtained show that the patch materials of low stiffness, low adhesive moduli and low tapering angles are desirable for a strong double-lap joint. In the double-lap joint, the shearing-mode stress intensity factor is always larger than that of the opening-mode and both shearing and opening mode stress intensity factors increase as the crack length increases, but their amplitudes are not sensitive to adhesive thickness. Results are discussed in terms of their relationship to adhesively bonded joints design and can be used in the development of approaches aimed at using adhesive bonding and extending the lives of adhesively bonded repairs for aerospace structures.     

Parametric study of adhesive joints with composites

Adhesively-bonded joints are increasingly used in aeronautical industry. Adhesive joints permit to join complex shapes and reduce the weight of structures. The need to reduce the weight of airplanes is also increasing the use of composites. Composites are very anisotropic: in the fibre directions, unidirectional composites can be very strong and stiff, whereas the transverse and shear properties are much lower. Bonded joints experience peel loading, so the composite may fail in transverse tension before the adhesive fails. That is why it is important to study these joints and try to find reliable ways to predict the strength of joints with composite adherends. The main goal of this study was to understand the failure in adhesive joints with composites, bonded with adhesives with different characteristics, and find reliable ways to predict them. Experimental tests were carried with single lap joints with composite adherends and different adhesives, brittle and ductile, with several overlap lengths. A Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) was taken into consideration to predict the results observed during the experimental tests. The experimental results were also compared with simple analytical models and the suitability of each model was evaluated for each bonded system.     

Interlaminar fracture behaviour of re-formed bamboo/aluminium sheet laminates

Sandwich laminates containing re-formed bamboo core and aluminium face sheets were produced using two different types of adhesive: an epoxy and a modified polyethylene. The interlaminar fracture behaviour of the laminates was characterized based on peel and lap-shear tests. It was shown that the laminates bonded with polyethylene had much higher peel and shear strengths than those bonded with epoxy. For the polyethylene-bonded laminates, the major failure mechanisms were a combination of cohesive and interfacial failure, whereas for the epoxy-bonded laminates, the fracture occurred almost exclusively along the aluminium/epoxy interface. There was a significant dependence of the failure mechanism and interlaminar strength on the loading direction relative to the bamboo fibre axis and on whether the aluminium sheets were bonded to the inner or outer bamboo surface.     

The dependence of butt fusion bond strength on joining conditions for polyethylene pipe

The integrity of a pipeline system is determined by its weakest links. Joints may be such places. Heat fusion is the most common joining method for distribution gas piping. There are procedural, thermal, and mechanical aspects of making fusion joints. Procedural aspects, such as heater calibration and cleanliness, can be assured only by rigorous training and certification of the operators. Thermal and mechanical aspects consist of specifying joining conditions such as the heater temperature, heating time, and joining pressure. In the absence of procedural errors, the strength of a fusion joint should depend on the pipe material, pipe dimensions, and the thermal and mechanical joining conditions. The measured parameters that are measures of strength are impact energy and location of failure in the tensile impact test. A parameter, termed the joining parameter, was found to characterize the joining conditions. This parameter is a function of bead volume, melt volume at the end of the heating phase, and pipe wall thickness. Of the mechanical test parameters, the impact energy was found to correlate best with the joining parameter.     

Experimental & numerical study of the Tensile/Compression-Shear Arcan test under dynamic loading

The characterization of the adhesive of bonded assemblies under combined and dynamic loading cases appears to be crucial for the development of the future structures dedicated to the transport industry. To date, most of the tests on adhesive joints are dedicated to comparative studies and only a few ones to characterization. Among these, the stress concentration-free bonded Arcan Tensile/Compression-Shear test specimen (Arcan TCS) developed by Créac’hcadec et al. allows to characterize the adhesive of bonded joints under combined quasi-static loading cases while minimizing the edge effects. This paper deals with an extension of the use of this specimen under dynamic loadings.In a first part, an experimental study of the Arcan TCS device under drop weight conditions is made. The mechanical behaviour of the adhesive appears to be non-linear and clearly dependent of the strain rate. Also, stress-strain curves highlight a significant influence of tests conditions. In particular, the way the kinetic energy is transmitted by the falling mass to the testing device plays a significant role on the vibrational behaviour and the loading rate of the specimen.In a second part, a dedicated finite element model is built under the plane stress and elastic assumptions. Results extracted from this numerical study are in agreement with several experimental observations. Moreover, they allow a better understanding of the loading seen by the adhesive.