Natural fiber based adhesive butt joints as a replacement to gas welded butt joints for thin tubes: An experimental study

Abstract

In this investigation, adhesive based butt joints were made between two mild steel tubular rods of 1.5 mm thickness and between mild steel and aluminium tubular rods of 1.6 mm wall thickness by winding a single sleeve of woven jute fiber. The sleeve was wetted with a suitable epoxy resin before it was wound. In few hours the winding cures to give a strong joint. The strength of the butt joint was determined for two loading conditions; axial tension and under 3-point bending. The strength of woven jute fiber butt joints was then compared with the strength of similar tubular rods joined with help of gas welding. It was observed that the strength of composite butt joints between dissimilar materials, aluminium and mild steel tubular rods, was higher in bending than butt joint between mild steel to mild steel tubular rods while the later was stronger in tension.