Dynamic shear strength of adhesive joints made of metallic and composite adherents

The use of adhesive joints has gained good acceptance in the automotive and aerospace industries in recent years, particularly for joining glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) to metals. Such joints will be subjected to short duration dynamic loads in service. The present study focuses on the evaluation of the shear strength of adhesive joints prepared using four different commercial adhesives at loading rates in the range of 0.6–1.2 MPa/μs. The adhesives used were Araldite 2014, Araldite 2011, Epibond 1590 and A/B Loctite 324. Joints were prepared with two different adherent combinations; aluminum–aluminum and aluminum–GFRP. The results of the study indicated that, depending on the adhesive and adherent combination, the dynamic strength was 2–4 times the static strength. Among the four adhesives, Epibond 1590 exhibited the highest rate sensitivity whereas Loctite 324 exhibited the least. Further it was also observed that the dynamic strength was not sensitive to the adherent combination whenever the failure was predominantly within the adhesive layer.