Construction and characterization of chemically joined stainless steel/E-glass composite sections

Silane-based chemistries on stainless steel substrates have been investigated to join them to E-glass composite sections for future shipbuilding applications. The joints were bonded using the Hysol EA9394 adhesive. The joints are characterized by measuring their fracture energies Gc using the double cantilever beam experiment. A chemistry has been uncovered that leads to a joint stronger than one of the substrates (composite). The effect of moisture preconditioning on the fracture energies of the joints was also evaluated. A silane layer chemistry was uncovered that controls the fracture path through the composite substrate in the multilayer joint assembly and thus improves the fracture durability by a factor of 6 over joints without any silane treatment.