Analysis of a modified microbond test for the measurement of interfacial shear strength of an aqueous-based adhesive and a polyamide fibre

The microbond test was used to measure the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) between a polyamide fibre and a water-based polyurethane. Due to the low viscosity of the water based polyurethane, the droplet could not be formed using a conventional preparation method. A disc shaped microbond droplet forms when an aqueous-based colloidal polymer adhesive was deposited onto the pin hole in a mounting card with a vertical polyamide fibre in the middle after drying and curing at an elevated temperature. Since the droplets were formed with a disc shape, which differs from the conventional ellipsoid, a finite element analysis of the stress distribution at the interface for these contrastingly shaped droplets were calculated and compared. The stress analysis showed that the interfacial shear stress profiles were well matched for both providing confidence that the disc-shaped droplets could be used for interfacial analysis. The microbond test using a disc-shaped droplet was used to study the influences of silane treatment and plasma treatment on the interfacial shear strength between a polyamide fibre and an aqueous deposited polyurethane. The interfacial shear strength of the fibre after plasma treatment was 10.3 MPa, much higher than that of the control and the silanised fibres, 5.2 MPa and 5.4 MPa respectively. The results showed that the microbond test could be used to investigate the interfacial properties of the polyamide fibre and water-based polymer adhesive.

► Aqueous emulsion adhesives deposited onto a fibre produced disc shaped micro-droplets.
► Stress distributions in discs and conventional symmetrical micro-droplets obtained by finite element analysis were comparable.
► The microbond test provided good values of interfacial shear strength.
► Silane pre-treatment of the polyamide fibre was not effective for the polyurethane adhesive.
► Plasma pre-treatment was effective.