Investigation of the Environmental Effect on Adhesive Bonds

• Main Author: MASA ALOGO BINDANG, Manuel
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti teknologi petronas 2008
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9941/1/2008%20-%20Investigation%20of%20the%20Environmental%20Effects%20on%20Adhesive%20Bonds.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9941/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Adhesively bonded joints are increasingly being used in joining various structural components in a variety of industries (Marine, aerospace, automotive, etc.). Adequate understanding of the behavior of adhesively bonded joints under the environmental effects is necessary to ensure efficiency, safety and reliability of such joints. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate the degradation of adhesive bonded joints dueto the environmental effects on a single lapjoint, whichconsists of two adherent joint together by an adhesive, and it is widely used for producing insitu shear strength data on adhesively bondedjoints tests. The materials used in this project for suchtests are Aluminum and steel sheet as adherent, while Devcon epoxy and Rill super glue are used as adhesive, they are specially formulated for use on metals and other materials. Two sets of specimens and joints will be fabricated as recommended by ASTMD1002andtested for shear strength; a set of specimens will be tested for shear strength under normal conditions, while the second set of jointed specimens will undergo corrosive environment (salt spray) then be tested for shear strength. The results obtained from the experimental tests, will be used to analyze and compare the variation on the joints strength under normal and corrosive environment. The average shear strength of aluminum sheets bonded with Devcon epoxy under normal and corrosive conditions is 16.43 MPa and 10.54 MPa respectively, while aluminum bonded with Rill super glue under normal and corrosive environment is 12.50 MPa and 4.54 MPa respectively; steel sheets bonded with Devconepoxy presented 14.66MPa and 6.19MPa of joint strength under normal and corrosive environment respectively, while bonded with Rill super glue, the strength is found to be 18.01MPa and 13.38MPa under normal and corrosive environment respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that using aluminum as adherent, best results are obtained when bonded together with Devcon epoxy, while using Steel as adherent, best results are obtained when bonded with Rill super glue. Further studies on more different types of adhesives will need to be done to provide better alternative for adhesives selection with respect to the working environment.