| Abstract: | The first part of the paper deals with an approach towards a systematic testing procedure to evaluate the creep behavior of single lap shear specimens bonded with PSA mounting tapes under the influence of temperature and humidity. The study includes commercial tapes as well as self-formulated pressure sensitive adhesives based on styrene block copolymers. The second part of the paper relates the obtained data, consisting of the time-dependent sample deformation and time-to-failure, to the observed failure modes. The results show that the creep behavior of a pressure sensitive adhesive is not only dependent on the environmental, conditions but also on the substrate material and its surface composition. The results for the self-formulated adhesives reveal the possibility of enhancing creep resistance of PSA's by adding fillers to the formulation. The paper closes with a modification of the Burgers model that is suitable for describing the creep/creep recovery behavior of tested lap shear specimens. The effect of nonlinear behavior in cyclic loading experiments is described and a thesis for the relation of nonlinear creep behavior to damaging processes in the adhesive bond is presented. |
