A Study on Evaluation of Impact Strength of Adhesive Joints Subjected to Impact Shear Loadings

Abstract

Adhesive joints in mechanical structures are subjected to static loading as well as impact loading. It is desired for the adhesive joints to have sufficient strength under both static and impact loadings. A lot of studies on the adhesive joints and the joint strength subjected to static loading have been carried out and examined. A few research works on the adhesive joint subjected to dynamic loading have been done, however, it has not fully elucidated for applying the joints to important sections in mechanical structures. In this study, the impact strength of adhesive joints subjected to impact shear loading is investigated using modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) apparatus. The shear strength of adhesive joint, in which a solid cylinder is bonded to a hollow cylinder by an adhesive, is determined from maximum applied shear stress. A commercial thermosetting epoxy adhesive is used in the experiments. At the same time, the stress distributions in the joints subjected to impact shear loading are simulated by the finite-element analyses (FEA). The effect of adhesive thickness is investigated experimentally and computationally. It is shown that the strength is greatly affected by the adhesive thickness and the effect on the stress distributions in the joint is discussed.