Non-destructive characterization of bondlines in composite adhesive joints

Aerospace structures use polymeric composite materials extensively. These composite materials are normally bonded together by adhesives to form structural parts. The existence of any kind of defects or discontinuities in the bonds is completely undesirable for such applications. Ultrasonic imaging (UI) is a widely used technique for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and can be adopted to evaluate the integrity of such adhesively-bonded joints. However, characterization of adhesive bonds in composite materials using UI has deficiencies due to problems such as high acoustic attenuation and high signal-to-noise ratio. These problems can be attributed to the inhomogeneity in composite structures. The present study addresses the problems of detection of disbonds and porosity in adhesively bonded carbon fiber reinforced composite panels. Five sets of adhesively-joined carbon/epoxy composites with different adherend surface preparations were fabricated and subjected to UI. The panels contained known defects in the bondline of the samples. UI results are interpreted to identify various existing defects such as voids, cracks and disbonds in the joints. Attenuation coefficient values for all types of composites are utilized to ascertain the validity of the image analysis.     

Dynamic characteristics of adhesive bonded high strength steel joints

Abstract

With an increase in the use of advanced high strength steels in vehicle architectures, materials joining issues have become increasingly important. Among the various joining methods, adhesive bonding is increasingly used in automobile manufacturing. Successful implementation of adhesive bonding to improve structural crashworthiness and reduce vehicle weight requires the knowledge of issues related not only to processing but also to joint performance. In this study, the impact strength of adhesive bonded high strength steel joints is evaluated with the split Hopkinson tension bar (SHTB) technique. The influences of loading speed and thickness of the steels on the shear strength of the joints were examined. Comparative quasi-static lap shear tests were also conducted on a tensile testing machine. Test results showed that strength and energy absorption of bonded steel joints increase with loading speed, and is greatly affected by the thickness of the steels. As the loading rates are increased to 1100 s^–1 (i.e. 20 m s^–1), bonded 0·75 mm thick DP600 steel shows a 152% increase in strength and an 83% increase in energy absorption when compared to its quasi-static values. Examination of the impact tested specimens showed the failure mode changes from coarse cohesive mode to fine cohesive mode with increasing loading speed. The results from this study will provide the information for a better understanding of impact failure mechanisms of adhesive bonded high strength steels.     

Durability of metal joints bonded with aluminium powder filled epoxy adhesive

Abstract

Durability of the metal joints bonded with aluminium powder filled epoxy adhesive was investigated by measuring the joint strength by the single lap shear test before and after exposure to distilled water and the hot and humid Arabian Gulf atmosphere. Fractured specimens were examined by photography. The epoxy adhesive retained its strength with as much as 50 wt-% addition of aluminium filler. Moreover, varying the Al filler content in the adhesive did not have a significant effect on adhesive behaviour in either of the two environments studied. Exposure to atmosphere for as long as 6 months did not cause a deterioration of strength for metal joints bonded with aluminium powder filled epoxy. They failed almost completely within the adhesive, similar to the cohesive mode of unexposed specimens. However, a significant strength decrease was observed in adhesive joints after exposure to distilled water for 6 months. The joints failed in more than a single mode. The interior part of the adhesive lap area failed in cohesive mode while an adhesion failure mode was observed near the edges of the adhesive lap area, which is believed to be a result of moisture diffusion through the edges.     

Experimental Analysis of Static and Fatigue Strength Properties in Press-Fitted and Adhesively Bonded Steel–Aluminium Components

Press-fitted and adhesively bonded joints (Hybrid Joints) are increasingly used as an alternative way to traditional structural joining techniques. The main achievable benefits can be summarized in the possibility of maximizing the load transfer (torque or axial) and reducing both the weight and the stress field of the components, by taking advantage of the adhesive strength. Hybrid joints studies can be found in literature mainly on steel–steel components (Steel Hybrid Joints). The aim of this paper is to provide some relevant information on the static and fatigue strength properties in the case of steel–aluminium components (Mixed Hybrid Joints), from the experimental tests performed on a high strength, single-component adhesive which cures anaerobically. The use of the adhesive increases the press-fitted joint performances, with respect to its release force: the adhesive static shear strength is about 9 MPa, whereas the adhesive endurance limit is about 6 MPa, in presence of a stress ratio R = 0.1.     

Adhesively Bonded Patch Repair of Composite Laminates

Damaged composite laminates repaired using adhesively bonded patches have been studied. A special adhesive element is developed to examine the stress distribution in the bonded region. Utilizing the adhesive element, one is able to incorporate the regular elements in the laminate and patch. It has the advantage of reducing the adhesive bonding problem to a two-dimensional in-plane problem, and avoiding the need for refined meshes in the adhesive. The special adhesive element is derived based on the assumption of constant shear stress through the thickness of the adhesive. The damaged area of the composite laminate is simulated as a hole. The repair efficiency is evaluated by comparing the stress concentration factor in the damaged hole before and after repair. The effects of the thickness, size and material properties of both patch and adhesive on the stress distribution are presented through a parametric study. Numerical results indicate that a stiffer and thicker patch is able to carry higher loads, and, consequently, reduce the load across the damaged area yielding less stress concentration in the damaged hole. For a high shear modulus and thin thickness of the adhesive layer, less loads are transferred to the patch resulting in a high stress concentration in the damaged hole.     

Thermoplastic film adhesives based on phenol-functional acrylic copolymers: synthesis,mechanical and adhesion properties

Acrylic polymers possessing varying proportions of pendant phenol groups were synthesized by the free radical copolymerization of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) maleimide (HPM) with butyl acrylate (BuA) and acrylonitrile (AN) and characterized. These thermoplastics form excellent films and their mechanical and adhesion properties were evaluated as a function of the phenol content. Enhancing the HPM content increased both the tensile strength and the modulus but decreased the elongation. A nominal increase in the phenol content was found to be conducive for improving the adhesion properties of the films. At higher concentrations, the adhesion properties showed a decreasing trend due to the embrittlement caused by the rigid maleimide groups. The adhesion property at 50°C increased linearly with the HPM content due to an increased T _g, whereas a reverse trend was observed for the adhesion property measured at-196°C, due to the dominance of the embrittlement effect. The reduced flow characteristics of the high HPM-loaded systems led to a diminished honeycomb flat-wise tensile strength. Enhancing the HPM concentration in the chain promoted the adhesion properties for the vulcanization bonding of nitrile rubber to aluminium. Addition of silica filler marginally improved the lap shear strength (LSS) for the metal-metal system, but was detrimental for rubber-metal bonding; a reverse trend was observed for the carbon-filled system. The diminished performance for metal-metal bonding by carbon could be attributed to the weakening of the interphase, whereas the enhanced rubber-metal bonding could be due to possible reinforcement of the rubber phase by carbon. The fillers generally improved the high temperature adhesion. However, they impaired the flow properties of the resin and, thereby, adversely affected the flat-wise tensile strength in both cases.     

The effect of edge banding thickness of white oak bonded with different adhesives on withdrawal strengths of beech dowels in composite materials

Dowel joints are widely used in furniture frame construction as a load-bearing connection structure, as well as a simple locator for parts. Joints constructed with dowels were subjected to withdrawal, bending, shear, and tensile forces. The aim of this study was to determine the withdrawal strengths of 6, 8, 10 mm diameter beech dowels embedded into matching holes drilled into the edges of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard (PB) with solid wood edge banding of white oak with 5, 10 and 15 mm thickness, bonded with hot-melt, poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) and Desmodur-VTKA (D-VTKA), a polyurethane-based one-component adhesive. The effects of edge banding thickness, dowel dimension, type of composite material and type of adhesive used for edge banding on the withdrawal strength were determined. According to the interaction results from the Duncan test the highest withdrawal strength (7.019 N/mm²) was obtained in beech dowels with 6 mm diameter for MDF with solid wood edge banding of white oak with 10 mm thickness bonded with the hot-melt adhesive. Should the dowels be subjected to withdrawal, it is advised that a beech dowel should be used for MDF with solid oak edge banding with 10 mm thickness bonded with a hot-melt adhesive in furniture production and decoration applications.     

Evaluation of high-performance pressure-sensitive adhesives and VHB™ acrylic foam tapes bonded aluminum joints subjected to environmental aging

A range of 3M^? high performance pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) and 3M^? VHBTM^? acrylic foam tapes were used to bond 25.4 mm × 3.175 mm aluminum 2024 T-4 adherends in both single-lap joint (SLJ) and three-point end-notch flexure (ENF) configurations. The samples were subjected to two types of aggressive environments to simulate extreme service conditions: freeze–thaw and heat–cool cycling, both for 21 days. Impulse-frequency response vibration and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used for monitoring bond quality non-destructively. Data were first obtained on a set of specimens at room conditions (i.e., before being subjected to freeze–thaw, or heat–cool cycling), referred to as "baseline" in this paper. After obtaining baseline data, several batch sets were subjected to quasi-static lap-shear and dynamic impact loadings to compare the mechanical and electrochemical properties before and after environmental cycling. EIS results show that moisture absorption caused a reduction in low-frequency impedance, whereas decrease in adhesive thickness caused a reduction of impedance over the entire frequency range. The impulse-frequency response vibration NDE technique was able to detect the changes in loss factor (damping) of adhesive joints after environmental aging. Quasi-static lap-shear loading of SLJs showed that acrylic foams took less failure load compared to PSA tapes, and SLJs subjected to dynamic impact showed all PSAs and acrylic foams taking about the same impact load to failure, except the softer acrylic foam.     

Energy and force distributions during mandrel peeling of a flexible tape with a pressure-sensitive adhesive

Peel tests are commonly used to investigate the strength of adhesive joints. In the mandrel peel test the curvature of the flexible tape within the zone of detachment is controlled by the radius of the mandrel and this, coupled with an energy balance approach, allows separate determinations of the energy terms associated with any plastic or inelastic deformation of the tape and the de-adhesion or peel energy. If, in addition, the force on the mandrel is monitored then the position of the force vector within the separation or de-adhesion zone can be established. This, in turn, permits a closer comparison with predictions from a peel model which allows non-linear behaviour of both the tape and the adhesive layer. The model has been validated by peel tests on cellulose, PVC, aluminium and Teflon tapes carried out at sufficiently low speeds for rate effects within the adhesive to be small. Both the measured values of the de-adhesion energy, which varied from 60 to 160 J/m², and the positions of the force vector within the de-adhesion zone correlated well with those predicted from load-extension tests on samples of the tapes and bulk samples of similar polymeric adhesives carried out at similar rates of deformation.     

Effect of Substrate Material on Fatigue Crack Propagation Rate of Adhesively Bonded DCB Joints

The effect of substrate material on the fatigue crack propagation rate was investigated using adhesively bonded DCB specimens with CFRP and aluminum substrates. The experimental results show that the increase in thickness of the adherend lowers the fatigue threshold, ΔG _th, and raises the crack growth parameter, n, irrespective of the substrate material, and that the crack growth parameter, n, for the aluminum joints is less than that for the CFRP joints. To elucidate the fatigue crack propagation behavior, fracture surface observation and finite element analysis have been conducted. Besides, Gurson's model is applied to the adhesive layer. SEM images show that numerous voids are formed in the fracture surface for the joints with aluminum substrate, but the growth of voids is suppressed for the joints with CFRP substrate. FEM results also show that the void area fraction for the joint with aluminum substrate is greater than that with CFRP substrate. Thus, the above experimental and numerical trends of voids correspond to the trends of the fatigue crack propagation behavior.