Effect of adherends and environment on static and transverse impact response of adhesive lap joints

• Impact response of adhesive joints has received limited attention.
• There are very few studies combining moisture and its effect on the impact strength.
• There are very few studies, in this context, involving single lap joints with different adherends.

Impact response of adhesive joints has received limited attention compared to quasi-static loading. On the other hand, there are very few studies combining moisture and its effect on the impact strength. Therefore, the present paper aims to study the effect of moisture on the tensile and impact strength of single lap joints with different adherends (high limit elastic steel and a commercial composite). It was possible to conclude that adhesive joints with steel adherends are very sensitive to the environment and exposure time. For adhesive joints with composite adherends, the water showed a marginal effect. A marked hygrothermal effect was observed for all joints. For impact loads the environment effect is similar, but much more severe than that observed in tensile tests. For both tests, adhesive failures occurred for adhesive joints with steel adherends and delaminations for joints involving composite.