Experimental and numerical determination of the thermal cycle performance of joints obtained with nanostructure-doped nanocomposite adhesives

Abstract

Particularly findings from nanoscience influence materials and mechanical sciences deeply as well as other disciplines. Polymers containing nanostructures attracted attention as nanocomposite materials. This study involves the production of a new nano adhesive utilizing the advantageous parameters of carbon-nano-reinforced polymers used for adhesively bonded, particularly in aerospace applications, and the mechanical and thermal cycle performance of this new product. In this study, the tensile mechanical properties of single-lap joints (SLJs), which are the most widely used type of adhesive joint geometry, obtained by adding nano-particle to adhesive was investigated experimentally and numerically under ambient temperature and thermal cycle conditions. The experimental results of reinforced adhesive under ambient temperature conditions were taken from open literature. Adhesively bonded SLJs were produced using DP460 tough and DP125 flexible adhesive types as the adhesives; AA2024-T3 aluminum alloy was used as the adherend and 1 wt% Graphene-COOH, Carbon Nanotube-COOH and Fullerene C60 were used as the added nano-particles. The experimental results were compared with the results of numerical calculations that employ Cohesive Zone Model (CZM). Also six different thermal cycle loadings were applied on the SLJs. As a result, when the experimental failure loads were examined, the nanocomposite adhesives obtained by adding nano-particle were found to have increased the thermal cycle resistance of the joints. However, increase rate in the thermal cycle resistance changes depending on the structural features of the adhesive, the type of nano-particle and thermal cycle condition. It was also concluded that the results of numerical calculations matches the experimental results quite satisfactorily.