Investigation of the structural performance of continuous adhesive glass-metal connections using structural silicone and hybrid polymer adhesives

Abstract

Current design standards and technical guidelines regarding structural adhesive glass-metal connections demonstrate only a narrow applicability window, resulting in constraints regarding the geometry of the adhesive joint, e.g. width-to-thickness ratio, that are tight as well. Therefore, research is conducted considering continuous adhesive glass-metal connections with joint geometries beyond the design framework of existing technical design guidelines. The structural silicones DowSil™ 993 and Sikasil® SG-500, and the hybrid polymer adhesive Soudaseal 2K are used during the experiments as such types of adhesives have already demonstrated their durability over the last 50 years in structural sealant glazing systems. This paper reports on the mechanical performance of continuous adhesive glass-metal connections with varying width-to-thickness ratios. Numerical models are validated based on experimental data, which are then used for parametric studies. From the generated data basic relationships between joint stiffness and geometrical parameters are derived, such as width-to-thickness ratio. A mechanical model of continuous adhesive glass-metal joints as proposed in literature is used to perform analytical calculations to predict the deformations and stresses in the adhesive layer, which shows good agreement with the numerical results. The existing mechanical model predicts the stiffness of these continuous connections as function of geometrical and material parameters (here for DowSil™ 993) significantly accurate. Therefore, this research can serve as a basis for the expansion of current design methods to adhesive joint geometries outside their current framework.