Abstract
The durability of epoxy–aluminium joints that use a homopolymerised epoxy resin was studied, and the effects of relative humidity, temperature, and salt concentration were analysed. The adhesive properties were measured by lap–shear tests, and the water uptake of the epoxy resin was determined by gravimetric measurements. Ageing and degradation effects on the epoxy resin and on the aluminium substrates were also analysed. The homopolymerised epoxy resin absorbs little water (1.5 wt%) because of its nonpolar network structure. The water uptake is enhanced by increasing relative humidity and temperature; however, the joint strength remains constant because of epoxy plasticization. A saline environment is damaging to the adhesive joints, because of metal corrosion, but was not significantly harmful to the epoxy resin, because of a lower diffusion coefficient of salt water. The Tg decrease of the epoxy adhesive due to water absorption depends only on the amount of absorbed water and is independent of the hydrothermal ageing conditions.
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