Adhesive rheology impact on wet lay-up CFRP/steel joints' behaviour under infrastructural subzero exposures

The present work investigates an innovated methodology for manufacturing wet lay-up CFRP/steel double-strap joints and characterises their interfacial bond experimentally under infrastructural subzero exposures. A series of tensile tests is carried out on these joints after being conditioned at subzero temperatures ranging from −40 °C up to 20 °C. Three rheologically different epoxide resins and NM (normal modulus) unidirectional CF (carbon fibre) plies are used for the joints' fabrication. Failure patterns, joint strength, and strain and LSS (lap-shear stress) distributions for the tested joints are obtained. Useful discussions and conclusions are provided, particularly those related to the influence of subzero temperatures and rheological properties of the current adhesives on the investigated parameters.