Influence of dissimilar composite adherends on the mechanical adhesion of bonded joints for small blade wind turbine applications

For this study, three fiber glass-reinforced adherend types: hand lay-up, vacuum infusion (at 0.4 and 0.8 bar), and two adhesive thickness (0.7 and 1.3 mm) were selected. The testing results showed that the adherend type is not important when thin adhesive thicknesses are used (0.7 mm) in single lap joints (SLJ). Nevertheless, the influence of the adherend type on SLJs with 1.3 mm adhesive thickness has a great effect. Also, the use of adherends made with a vacuum infusion process with 0.4 and 0.8 bar improves the joint strength in relation to a hand lay-up adherend. Good agreement was found between the numerical and experimental results.